Post-Fire Recovery of Acorn Production by Four Oak Species in Southern Ridge Sandhill Association in South-Central Florida

Warren G. Abrahamson and James N. Layne

Two components of research were done in this study. Both the amount of stems that grew acorns and the number of acorns produced were examined. Four types of oaks were being tested, two white oak species, and two red oak species. Counts of both of these were taken yearly from 1969 to 1998 on two 2.7 hectare plots. The prescribed burn took place in May of 1993 on one of the plots. Both species of white oak produced acorns the year after the fire, although not as many as years before the fire, although five years after the fire, began producing more acorns than years before the fire. Red oak species took 3-4 years to begin producing acorns again, although there were no remarkable differences after they began producing again. The amount of acorns produced along with the timing of production both have the potential to heavily influence the biodiversity of the area because birds, mammals and insects which eat the acorns are all affected as well as the species they interact with.

Data needed for this study is observational because the researchers are observing a behavior of a species before and after a variable is changed. Data gathering came from walking the grid of both the control plot (unburned) and the burned plot and counting each checkpoint tree for sufficiently developed acorns. Counting acorns on taller trees was almost certainly less accurate than most oaks, but a long bamboo pole was used to move branches around for visibility. Data analysis was all done by purely counting what had been produced compared to years before.  

Abrahamson, Warren G., and James N. Layne. “Post-Fire Recovery of Acorn Production by Four Oak Species in Southern Ridge Sandhill Association in South-Central Florida.” American Journal of Botany, vol. 89, no. 1, 2002, pp. 119–123. www.jstor.org/stable/4131345.

The scholarly article I choose to analyze was “Lending practices and Canadian women in micro-based businesses” by Orser Barbara J. and Foster, M K. The article was published in the Women in Management Review 9.5 in 1994. The article can be found on page 11 at the web address at the bottom of the page, I sought out this article to observe studies on micro-loaning and it’s the mechanics behind the operation of this niche market.  http://0-] search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/docview/213131010/abstract/32C5E2FDB67E44A5PQ/1?accountid=14729

The article touched upon the unusual circumstances surrounding microloans considering their inherently risky nature and neglect for conventional measures of stability to cover the crucial point of typical lending behavior which was the five C model of lending criteria. The article described in outstanding detail the characteristics that they consider in micro-loan applicants and the systems in place that has cultivated a nurturing environment for such a vulnerable industry. In addition, the article investigates the growing concern of sexism regarding the micro-loan criteria. The article pointed out that the criteria itself are not sexist although it’s application has proven to be hostile towards female entrepreneurs.

The article’s topic is on lending practices and their variability. In addition, the research question that I have arrived at is how are micro loaner’s able to survive in economic climates that large lending firms don’t find navigable?

To answer the question, I would find expert knowledge data. This is crucial because while economic repercussions are difficult to understand and adapt too although being in a market that’s based solely on high-risk dealing is far more difficult.

The data-gathering method that the author used was collecting public and private records from various sources of aggregate data and specific case studies that were of interest. The method that was determined to me most suitable for the study is interval ratio data analyses.

I find this study to be incredibly useful to forming a meticulous illustration of the criteria, biases, economic, and sociological factors that determine the eligibility of applicants. For instance, a piece of information that gave me deep insight into the field was that “economic restructuring, corporate downsizing, and high unemployment have created a “push” to self-employment. At the same time, the demand for contract services and new micro-market segments have “pulled” innovators into the micro-business sector”. This quote points out an indisputable but often ignored fact of our current economy which is that the U.S and many other nations have become service sector economies. The article proceeds to elaborate on my motivation for approaching this article which was micro-lending and utility in 3rd world countries. The method that they are referring to would fund economic development with far greater efficiency due to the emergence of micro markets during the 2nd industrial revolution the new micro-markets and in our evaluation of this research.   

I don’t believe the class or most readers would find this particular study interesting because of its niche audience although what I found was particularly interesting was that there is only a single commercial bank that performs micro-loans. The bank is called the Royal Bank and it is in Canada. In addition, Canada was found to be the 2nd most likely country in the world to secure its debt through commercial banking due to small-business owners and small-business finance.

In the article “Examining Masculine Gender Role Conflict and Stress in Relation to Religious Orientation and Spiritual Well-Being”, authors James R. Mahalik and Hugh D. Logan delve into the topic of  the intersection between gender roles and religion. More specifically, the two men wished to answer the research question: “Do gender role conflict and stress predict. Catholic seminarian an college age men’s religiosity and spiritual well-being?”. To answer this question, the researchers collected data in the form of surveys, asking 151 single, primarily Caucasian, Catholic men to fill out several tests. Of these men, 77 were seminarians, while the rest were not. Both groups were surveyed on the Gender Role Conflict Scale, the Gender Role Stress Scale, the Extrensic and Intrinsic Religious Orientation Scales, and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale. Mahalik and Logan analyzed the results of the surveys, and came to the conclusion that there are significant relationships between gender role conflict and stress and religiosity and well-being. Interestingly, however, these relationships were often manifested differently between nonseminarians and seminarians, with seminarians often fairing worse than nonseminarians when under a great deal of gender role stress and conflict.

I found the project to be very interesting, though I do agree with the authors’ sown assessment that the self-reported nature of the project, as well as the common answer of “not applicable”, may have somewhat skewed the data. I did appreciate that the numbers of seminarians and nonseminarians were nearly equal, and that both groups drew from a range of states. I would have liked to see a broader study on the topic, rather than one focusing on a single religious denomination, but understand that to do so would have required a much more extensive study. As a whole, I found the article to be interesting, and the arguement to be compelling.

Psychology of Men & Masculinity 2.1, Jan 2001, pgs. 24-33

The article, “Minimizing Harm and Maximizing Pleasure: Considering the Harm Reduction Paradigm for Sexuality Education”, by Michael Naisteter and Justin Sitron,  has four goals: to define the goals of a comprehensive sexual education program as well as an HIV/STI prevention program, to analyze the absence of pleasure as a topic for sex education program for youth, to define and identify harm reduction based sex education, and, lastly, to offer specific suggestions for implementing pleasure and harm reduction oriented topics into the current sexual education curriculum.

The article begins by arguing that a comprehensive sex education program not only includes disease and pregnancy prevention, which is only one small portion of sex safety, but must also include, “sexual development, sexual and reproductive health, interpersonal relationships, affection, intimacy, body image, and gender roles” (Naisteter and Sitron, 102.) Since the HIV epidemic in 1980s sex education has been primarily focused on prevention of pregnancy and STIs through the use of contraceptives, abstinence, and identification of risky behaviors. This curriculum has continued with the focus of sex education programs on abstinence only.

“Primary prevention operates in a paradigm of risk preemption by exclusively focusing on teaching participants to avoid negative health consequences before they transpire (Broom, 2008). Proponents often emphasize evidence-based programs, medicalization, and behavioral risk (Broom, 2008).” (Naisteter and Sitron, 104.) The article argues that positing safe sex versus unsafe sex sets up a dichotomy that only allows sex educators to teach about sexuality in a negative light rather than teaching that sex, including sex for pleasure, can be positive with risk prevention.

Naisteter and Sitron argue that sex education should be set up on a spectrum that does not polarize any group of people, including those who have sex for pleasure, those who have already contracted STDs or STIs, and who have practiced risky sexual behavior in the past. As sex education is currently, solely based on risk prevention, pleasure is seen as mutually exclusive to safety. The article argues that sex education should be reformed to include a spectrum that includes sex that is not inhibited by sexual safety on one end and sex that is hindered by sexual safety on the other.

By introducing harm reduction programs that view sex positively and acknowledge pleasure. Harm reduction programs would allow sex educators to speak to a wide variety of people who have different sexual histories and promote safe sex including pleasure in a positive light. Incorporated into current sex education curriculum, harm reduction and pleasure based curriculum would have to loo for alternatives to teaching only safe versus unsafe practices, abstinence only, and the use of the condom as the only birth control.

Broom, D. (2008). Hazardous good intentions? Unintended consequences of the project of prevention. Health Sociology Review, 17(2), 129–140.

Naisteter, M., Sitron, J. (2010). Minimizing Harm and Maximizing Pleasure: Considering the Harm Reduction Paradigm for Sexuality Education. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 5, 101-115.

In this article, the study looks at the dropout rates by looking at first graders to find any early signs. In the study, there were 1,242 black students that went to school in an urban neighborhood. In this community, dropout rates were very high, so the people in the study wanted to find any correlation. In the study, the researchers looked at school performance in the first grade, along with family background, family environment, and educational hopes at the time. They compared these factors to see if any pattern related to dropout rates in high school or just any major educational problems. In order to do this study, the researchers decided to take longitudinal data so that they can continually get the data overtime from the same 1,242 individuals that started the study.When the researchers collected the data for the final time, they found school files from 1,101 of the 1,242 that started the study. The researchers also took out all the people that moved and or died in the given time. Of the remaining students, it was calculated that 57% of males and 44.8% of females had dropped out. One of the underlying reasons was that some families struggled to get the kids to school due to economic constrictions. Overall, there was a link to socioeconomic status and dropout rate in this particular district.

This study could be beneficial because it answers the main question that I am researching. However, it only looks at one community in an urban area. I might want to look at more areas, both urban and rural, to see how this data relates to others that are similar. This study was beneficial for my learning and is another source that I could use later on.

Ensminger, Margaret E., and Anita L. Slusarcick. “Paths to High School Graduation or Dropout: A Longitudinal Study of a First-Grade Cohort.” Sociology of Education, vol. 65, no. 2 (1992): 95–113

The book set looks at international sources from the 1950s to the present day to provide an outlook on retailing. This article mentions the structural spatial relationships in the spread of hypermarket and the personality of the retail store.  Stores use a multiple-item scale for measuring consumers to see what they want/prefer.  Findlay analyzes the oligopolistic behavior in the market as well as clarifying the difference between manufacturers’ brands. The role of brands in European marketing is compared to the role of brands in American marketing.  Findlay touches on some problems that stores face such as economic factors that affect the spending of consumers and their customers.  Findlay raises a question during the collect:  Are store brands perceived to be just another brand?

The topic of this book set is to understand the personality of stores and who they are trying to appeal to while taking into account economic concerns as well as the structure of the American marketing system.  They used in-depth interviews, expert knowledge, as well as public and private records to gather their data.  I think they did a good job with their research as well as comparing it to another market system.  This topic was interesting in the fact that they consider stores and the market system to have human characteristics.  I think it would be an interesting read for my classmates to see how their favorite stores prove or disprove their results.

In this article the author, Daniel J. Levinson, with the use of collected research, talks about adult development and its various phases. He goes over peoples’ life course, life cycle, and the “eras” of a person’s life cycle; he goes over the life structure and its development in adulthood. Along with this he talks about the overall study of adult development as its own respective field. He discusses that people can not necessarily be defined just by adolescence and use that as a basis of comparison for how people turn out as seniors. Not only must one’s mature or adult stages of life be considered but the phases within those years and the events within those phases must be understood to make proper connections. These phases must also not be put in hierarchical positions because no phase that people go through is necessarily better than the ones that precede it they are just an old phase that will eventually be grown out of.

The topic of this article is adult development and what Levinson is specifically looking at are the phases between the ages of 17 to 65 which he considers the lifespan of the adult years. For this research, he used reports of acts, behavior, and events building off of previously done research on this topic. To gather this, he would have used public records/research that was already published which required in depth analysis of the qualitative data found.

I found this research to be incredibly insightful into the phases of adulthood which was something I always lumped together as one phase. Seeing people’s lives broken down into a structure that can be carried across to all types of people was fascinating. It gave me a better look into adulthood  gives an incredible as well as objective perspective on this topic. One thing that was the most interesting to me was seeing how he broke down the adult life span into nine separate groups but keeping with his idea that there is no hierarchy among them only transitions from one phase to another without any being better or less developed than the others.

Levinson, Daniel J. “A Conception of Adult Development.” American Psychologist 41, No. 1 (1986): 3-13.

Identifying exact species extinction risks has been a challenge for scientists for centuries. The IUCN Red List is the most widely accepted classification system, but is sometimes biased towards larger and more easily sampled species. In the article “An integrated trait-based framework to predict extinction risk and guide conservation planning in biodiversity hotspots,” the authors use base knowledge from the IUCN Red List population trends and “expert-perceived” vulnerability of environmental changes as the response variables for determining the risk of extinction for 195 amphibians in the Brazilian Cerrado. This is the world’s most biodiverse savanna as well as the largest. With the creation of this specialized extinction risk framework, the results show that the worldwide extinction risk for amphibians is underestimated by the IUCN.

The data utilized to address the research topic was reports of acts, events or behavior and acts, behavior, or events. The goal of building this framework is so that any biologist can add additional species-specific predicators on top of the basic data obtained from the IUCN. With that goal in mind, the authors obtained that data from public records from the IUCN, expert knowledge and observations; a very in depth data collection method. Although an extensive data collection method, the analysis of the data was through random forest models. They then assessed the accuracy of the models through the percentage of species correctly classified, the percentage of species not threatened that are correctly classified, and percentage of threatened species that are correctly classified with a statistical constant testing for agreement between the two classification systems.

Overall, this article was the most helpful article I have found on my research topic so far. It highlighted various ways to define priority areas for species with a lack of data and what predictors to use when attempting to create a more in depth classification system. This article also makes me question how many more taxa are underestimated for extinction risks. It is a daunting task for a scientist striving to save all the species we co-inhabit this planet with.

Joana Ribeiro, Guarino R. Colli, Janalee P. Caldwell, Amadeu M.V.M. Soares, An integrated trait-based framework to predict extinction risk and guide conservation planning in biodiversity hotspots, Biological Conservation, Volume 195, March 2016, Pages 214-223, ISSN 0006-3207, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.12.042.

Foreign direct investments have played a large role on China’s rapidly emerging economy. The author argues that foreign direct investments (FDI) in China have had no negative effects on the FDI flows to neighboring Asian countries. There was controversy in the 1990s when China was receiving a lot more FDI than surrounding countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The author argues that the scale of China’s economy justified its larger intake of FDI since its growing economy far outweighed those of less wealthy neighboring countries. Thus the amount of FDI was proportional to China’s scale. The author also denounced the belief that this was a zero-sum game, where more FDI to China meant less FDI to neighboring countries—in fact he states that it still benefitted the region. He also explains how China’s economic policies have favored FDI and is restructuring the regional economy. In order to demonstrate that China received proportional FDI, the article used economic data from an FDI Performance Index, which shows the ratio of FDI received by a country to its annual GDP. He collected this from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Thus he used publicly available data, which he collected available records. He also consulted the WTO and MOFTEC (Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation) for statistics. The article was well written and the author thoroughly explained his methods, making the research easily understandable.

Das, Dilip K. “Foreign Direct Investment in China: Its Impact on the Neighboring Asian Economies.” Asian Business & Management 6, no. 3 (2007): 285-301. doi:10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200225.

Environmental Beliefs and Attitudes in Sweden and the Baltic States

Geoffrey D. Gooch

Gooch, Geoffrey D. “Environmental beliefs and attitudes in Sweden and the Baltic states.” Environment and behavior 27.4 (1995): 513-539.

This particular article studies the topic of environmental behavior in Europe and challenges the dominant sociocultural paradigms, or a group’s way of looking at the world, regarding specific environmental beliefs and attitudes in Sweden and the Baltic states of Latvia, and Estonia. This is a relatively old study, conducted in 1995 and published in a Environment and Behavior Sage Publishing journal online, which I uploaded in PDF form. The principal purpose of the study was to determine correlations (if any) that prevail between a number of specified beliefs and values and degree of environmental concern, and what the consistencies are of those beliefs and values. Since the study is measuring beliefs and attitudes, the type of data needed to answer the question are shallow opinions and attitudes or deeply held opinion and attitudes depending on the individual’s perception of environmental issues. The cities in which the research was conducted were urban populations in Tartu, Estonia, Riga, Latvia, and the county of Ostergotland, Sweden. The study uses a data-gathering method of surveys and in-depth interviews and it utilized three scales to measure values and beliefs, a 6-question version of the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale that measures “primitive” environmental beliefs and their differences, a four-item scale to measure support for environmental science and technology, and another four-item scale version of Ronald Inglehart’s “post-materialism scale.” Methods of data analysis used in this research consisted of statistical analyses or interval/ratio data since the survey data were transferred into a quantitative fashion. Results of the surveys conducted revealed that support for the NEP, distrust of science and technology, post-material values, and concern for environmental conditions were only partially supported by the results of the Swedish study, and, not at all in the case of the Baltic samples.

The study seemed to be pretty comprehensive and it accounted for a lot of variability between the cities being analyzed in an attempt to make it as controlled as possible. However, I feel like there could’ve been a few more cities analyzed in case one of the urban areas wasn’t an accurate sample of the survey population. One thing I find quite interesting is that socio-cultural symbolic representations of reported global problems is used as a fourth explanatory factor in determining environmental attitudes for individuals for this study.