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.
Archive for year: 2015
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.
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Behind the Scenes (Challenge 4)
This week’s challenge has been to lurk on two social media sites about our respective social problems. “Lurking” is the act of simply observing what others say about a topic on social media and not personally participating in it.
For my lurking experience, I lurked on Twitter and Tumblr in “#lgbt representation” and would scroll through results and read what people posted about it. For these two sites, it did not feel too strange to be lurking, because a majority of my time spent on those social media outlets is done by browsing and scrolling my feed (occasionally liking, replying, sharing and posting my own material). However, it was different to be within a certain tag for about 10 minutes every day. I do not usually go too deep into specific subjects.
Twitter and Tumblr offered similar results while I lurked. The only limit for my results on Twitter was the character limit for each tweet. Each tweet is only allowed 140 characters; so users must be short and to the point when posting. For this reason, what I read on Twitter was very concise and straightforward: users are looking for more representation in the TV shows they watch. They also use their small amount of characters to give praise to shows that actually do give a good amount of LGBT representation. Audiences seem so hungry for this sort of representation, that even the smallest amount of appropriate representation in TV will create a flurry of tweets by the watchers. How To Get Away With Murder is a current TV show that people are especially pleased with in terms of LGBT representation.
Tumblr on the other hand has no character limit, so this allows its users to speak more about the topic. Often, the posts I see in the tag on Tumblr are of people creating compilations and lists of shows that account for moments of LGBT representation. Users of Tumblr seem especially excited when children’s cartoons and shows exhibit representation because the TV stations are informing children at a young and impressionable age that being in the LGBT spectrum is normal. Here is a post someone made that compiles different scenes of LGBT representation on television shows for children: http://13eclaire.tumblr.com/post/114361939801/what-a-time-to-be-alive . TV shows are given bounds of praise for not constantly showing heterosexuality to be the norm because there are so many different relationship types and sexualities. On Tumblr, people also give lengthy responses to questions asked by their followers on their opinion regarding LGBT representation.
For both Twitter and Tumblr, users seem to be more comfortable in speaking their mind and using their own voice. They are not afraid to let their opinion be known, despite people reading their material and responding to it. Representation is important because there is not just one type of person. In order to feel like they can connect to a show or any type of media, people need to see their own traits be portrayed in popular culture.
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Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Medications at Home…a Closer Look
It so happens that when this blog was assigned, an interesting medication teaching opportunity came up with a relative of mine. She has diabetes type 2 which is controlled by diet and exercise only; her doctor has not yet prescribed any single medication for her blood sugar control. If/when we are together and eat, I always chat with her about her blood glucose number. It so happens that on that particular day we were visiting, and she was telling me about the lunch she had at a new restaurant up the street. When I asked about her blood sugar level, she said that it was 275! When I asked her what she was going to do about it, she replied that she was going to take her cholesterol medication for it! I gave her a glass of water to drink and asked to if she wanted to take a short walk (to help lower her blood sugar). My plan was to chat with her on the walk about her medication and to retest her BGC when we returned. (By the way, it later went down to 135 to my relief).
I initially thought that she was confused about the difference between cholesterol medication and blood sugar control medications. She told me that when she tests her blood sugar and found it high, she has been taking a dose of her cholesterol medication, believing that her BGC level would decrease. I assumed she was referring to a statin and asked her to show me her medication packaging. I was surprised with my findings…
Her medication is named Welchol. It is a bile acid sequestrant, and considered an alternative to taking a statin to reduce/control high cholesterol levels. It works in the bowel to help remove bile acids from the body, then the body’s cholesterol to make more bile acids, which causes blood cholesterol levels to decrease. Ingenious!
Further intrigued, I went to the manufacturer’s website to investigate this interesting drug and saw…large banners that Welchol helps to lower blood sugar levels! Then I realized that is why/how my relative came to the conclusion that Welchol would symptomatically reduce her blood sugar levels. I read the “for patients” information section and found that this medication mostly works “in addition to” blood sugar lowering drugs, such as metformin and insulin. There was absolutely no mention of it helping to reduce blood sugar levels on its own.
Later, I pulled up several websites on Welchol to review with her. She was not aware that Welchol was not lowering her blood sugar. She also thought that she was supposed to take the Welchol symptomatically. Directions say to take it every day with food and to not miss a dose. She was also unaware of the potential side effects, so I reviewed those with her as well. I encouraged her to also chat with her doctor if she had any other questions and to keep on top of her blood sugar regimen.
I felt bad that I had not reviewed her medication with her before. We do, after all, educate patients at the hospital clinicals…why not educate out family too? I had just assumed that her provider had educated her, or that she had received information at the pharmacy. I should not have assumed, and decided from hereon that I would spend some quality time chatting with other family members about their medications (with their permission of course!). I also decided to take my own “medicine” so to speak, and to review the details, side effects, etc. for a medication that I am taking as well. Although I read the entire attachment that came with the one medication I take, it was a year ago and I decided that it would serve me well to have a review, just in case.
This was a great assignment…it reminds us to not take anything for granted, especially our medications. We have a responsibility to understand them and I am renewing my dedication 
References:
Deglin, Judith Hopfer, and April Hazard Vallerand. Davis’s Drug Guide for Nurses. 11th ed. Philadelphia, Penn.: F.A. Davis, 2009. Print.
“FDA Expands Advice on Statin Risks.” FDA Expands Advice on Statin Risks. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
Shah, R. V., and A. B. Goldfine. “Statins and Risk of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus”” Circulation (2014): E838. Print.
Testing
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