Archive for date: October 13th, 2015
How Well do You Know Your Own Meds?
This week we were prompted to look at how much our family members, friends, coworkers, etc. know about drugs. For the last couple years my father has been hovering around the pre-diabetic range in terms of his fasting blood glucose and A1C. He recently started taking Metformin so I decided to chat with him to see what he knows about it.
With my father being an engineer, he is very analytical in his thinking. He seems to actually enjoy taking his blood glucose after meals because he likes to interpret the data and analyze how his meal affected his blood glucose. He has also become interested in how adding a glass or two of wine or beer to his meal affects his blood glucose.
When asked how metformin works he was able to give me a generalized explanation of type II diabetes and how metformin works to counteract these effects by increasing the sensitivity of insulin receptors in certain tissues. We spoke about how metformin also regulates blood glucose by reducing glucose production by the liver and partially reducing absorption of glucose in the GI tract.
We also spoke about possible adverse effects from taking metformin. He noted that he sometimes gets an upset stomach when he drinks wine with metformin but otherwise hasn’t had any issues. He had vaguely remembered something about the risk of lactic acidosis and also knew it is not advisable to drink heavily when on metformin but wasn’t quite sure how these two factors were related. I explained that metformin can inhibit the breakdown of lactic acid and in rare cases can lead to lactic acidosis if it accumulates to toxic levels. We went over the early signs of lactic acidosis (hyperventilation, myalgia, malaise, unusual somnolence) and also discussed how alcohol can contribute to the risk of lactic acidosis as it also inhibits the breakdown of lactic acid.
Although my father likes to drink a glass or two of wine with dinner and is fascinated with how alcohol drops his blood glucose levels, he understands that drinking heavily while on metformin is not advisable. We also talked about how drinking alcohol in general can contribute to the development of type II diabetes by desensitizing insulin receptors. Even though metformin seems help regulate his blood glucose levels and keep him in the pre-diabetic range we talked about how important it is to still continue to try to manage his blood glucose as much as possible through diet and exercise. As with anything, a glass of wine or dessert is okay but do it in moderation!
Discover Your Flamin’ Hot Cheeto!
As you find yourself neck-deep in paper drafts and midterm exams, consider this story behind what may be one of your favorite products. With inspiration, determination, and a lot of perspiration, you never know what you can accomplish!
Lurking
This week, I turned to lurking on my topic on the social media. Two social media sites I was looking around were Facebook and Twitter. I wanted to see what kind of information or content was put out. This would help me expand my knowledge of my topic as well as identify for I can effectively find information or content I wanted. Using tags on twitter made it extremely easy to navigate through information. I just typed in a key word, such as LGBT, and the information popped up. The content was never ending and contained many different areas of my topic. Currently, there are 316 million twitter users. It’s amazing to see how fast content is being added in the matter of seconds on their live link. The site is simple and has links to access some content easily such as, videos, news, photos and top content. 
Similarly, I went on Facebook and searched LGBT and other key words to navigate through the site. Like Twitter, Facebook had many links. Mostly, pages of groups sharing information on lgbt. Some of these groups belonged to major contributors of my topic I have previously seen. One being BuzzFeed LGBT and the other, Human Right Campaign. These groups, and like many others, have been verified by Facebook to be authentic page belonging to a real media company. Accounts on twitter are also verified and I most of the time rely on content being put out from these pages. Many articles usually come with links to the original source and I can use it to track my content. Overall, I have found that lurking through media sites can be beneficial and easy to navigate to find content on I am searching for. 
Recent trip to Santa Cruz
Photo showing the burned and unburned nature of the Bosqe de Cabrillo grove. Seen in the photo are piles of Eucalyptus waiting to be burned this winter.
Last weekend I was able to visit the Prisoners Harbor Restoration site with my faculty advisor and NPS Staff. We toured the Bosqe de Cabrillo, Rincon Papal, and Le Selva groves, and were able to place markers for future use in my capstone study. We will hopefully be able to travel to Santa Cruz again in the coming weeks to get this project underway!
About Author
Research student at California University Channel Islands majoring in Environmental Science and Resource management (ESRM). Conducting research on the Santa Rosa Island Torrey Pine population.
Demography Plots and GIS Analysis of the Island Torrey Pine Outline
Demography Plots and GIS Analysis of the Island Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana ssp. Insularis)
I will be conducting my capstone on the Torrey Pine, Pinus torreyana. This tree is a rare remnant of the Pleistocene Era. Santa Rosa Island (SRI) is the last remaining location in which this subspecies, Insularis, is located. Through monitoring SRI Torrey Pine demography plots already in place, I will collect data and add any additional data found while analyzing four groves on SRI ( created by : Travis Hall). The groves: Cogan Grove, Main Grove, North Grove, and Box Canyon. The Torrey Pines in the groves are ID tagged. I will collect information in order to determine in what temporal space these trees are growing and how have they changed. I will collect diameter at breast height (DBH) for trees with a height greater than 160cm, height of the pine with a classification stages (Adult: height greater than 160cm with cones; Sub-adult: height greater than 160cm without cones, saplings; Saplings: height between 30-160cm; Seedlings: height less than 30cm) Additionally, if there are any missing tags or new trees I will add a tag and update the data sheet. Using the data that I collect and the previously collected data (Travis Hall) will allow me to determine if the population in each of the four groves is increasing, decreasing, or stable. It should be noted that the habitat on SRI has been dramatically impacted in the past by human induced grazing animals. Since the removal of these animals, 2013, Torrey Pine populations have been expected to increase.
After the Demography plots are analyzed I will take aerial photographs that have been purchased by CSUCI and analyze them. I am still unsure the exact dates that the images will be traced back to, however it will most likely contain images from 1929, 1959, and a recent photograph. These photographs have also geo-referenced to the same extent. I will use GIS to overlay the images. I will mark individual trees within GIS, and use programs such as Moran I Test- a cluster and outlier test, as well as the multi distance spatial analysis tool to summarize spatial dependence over a range of clusters. I will use this to further explore and show visually the changes within the four groves over time and the overall health of the individual groves.
Casey's Capstone 2015-10-13 16:17:51
Carter, T.G., Liu, P.L.F., and Mie, C.C., 1973. Mass Transport by waves
and offshore sand bed forms. A.S.C.E. Proc., Jour. Waterways and Harbors Div, 99, 165-184.
This reference is helpful source of information for the understanding of how currents will affect barrier beach breaching.
Finley, R.J., 1979, Ebb-tidal delta morphology and sediment supply in
Relation to seasonal wave energy flux, North Inlet, South Carolina. Jour. Sed Petrol. 48, 227-238.
This reference is helpful to understand flood and ebb tide influences and inlet formation.
Griggs, G., K. Patsch, and L. Savoy. 2005. Living With the Changing
California Coast. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, California, USA and England.
This reference is helpful for the diagrams of the watershed and dynamics of coastal environments.
Grotzinger, J., P., and T. Jordan. 2014. Understanding Earth Seventh
Edition. W.H. Freeman and Company, Houndmills, New York, USA.
This reference is helpful for a deeper understanding of the agents that form beaches.
Komar, P., D. 1976. Beach processes and sedimentation. Prentice-Hall,
Inc, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA.
This reference is helpful tool of knowing scientific names of what you are seeing at the beach.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Tide Tables.
National Ocean Survey, 2015.
This reference is helpful because of knowledge about up to date tide conditions can greatly influence beach profiles.
O’Hirok, L., S., 1985. Barrier Beach Formation and Breaching.
University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
This reference is helpful to compare historical and current data. This is also helpful to find great sources of information.
Outland, R., F. 1979 Man-Made Disaster: The Story of St. Francis Dam,
Its Place in Southern California’s Water System, Its failure and the Tragedy in the Santa Clara River Valley. Western Historical Quarterly. Volume 10, pp. 82-83
This reference is helpful because of a historically based knowledge is critical to knowing what the current state of the river is in.
Pilkey, O., H., W. Neal, J. Kelley, and A Cooper. 2011. The World’s
Beaches A Global Guide to the Science of the Shoreline. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, USA.
This reference is helpful source of reading a beach from a local to a global scale.
Viles, H. 1991. Coastal Geomorphology. University of Oxford, Oxford,
United Kingdom. Volume15. pp. 182
This reference is helpful to a greater understanding of the evolution of geomorphology.
Marketing Violence/Chapter 5
What stood out to me in the marketing violence article was the negative characteristics with minority characters. I have been aware that Disney movies specifically incorporate stereotypes in their movies. I am native American and I would watch Pocahontas when I was younger. I didn’t think anything of it at that time, but there is a part of the film that has a musical chorus stating that the Indians are “savages, barely even human.” I don’t think that part of the film is appropriate for children because it is conveying that Indians are horrible people. I think that race is a huge deal and I agree with the author that characters in movies and TV shows are given a persona of a “good guy,” and “bad guy.” I think that children look more positively at the good guy characters and negatively at the bad guy characters.
There was a passage in chapter 5 that I admired. “We blame media violence to deflect blame away from adult failings– our society’s failure to help troubled young people, who unfortunately we overlook until it’s too late.” I think this is important because there are many cases that parents ignore their kids when they are misbehaving. For instance, the Isla Vista shooting that happened a few years ago in Santa Barbara. This young adult was already showing signs of odd behavior, however, his parents ignored it. I find this case immensely interesting because he didn’t live in poverty, and many people assume that acts of violence come from people of low income families. Ultimately, parents need to be aware of whats going on with their children, and take it seriously when they are acting differently.
