dept-none-3 – Page 44 – CI Keys

Started Analyzing Data

March 7, 2016/in /by Sean Anderson

I have started comparing water quality data from each site by looking at the average measurements of temperature, turbidity, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, ad chlorophyll from each site. Here is a summary of those values:

Almost every site had a chlorophyll level that fell below 1.5 µg/L. The only exception being Soledad Canyon Creek, which had an average chlorophyll level of 2.15 µg/L. However, any chlorophyll level falling below 2.6 µg/L is considered oligotrophic, or nutrient deprived. Moreover, all five sites fall into this category. Turbidity varied amongst the three sites but all levels fell under 8 FNU which indicates the water is very clear and has a minimal amount of particles floating in the water that would otherwise make it cloudy and less transparent. Four out the five sites had an average temperature between 50 and 57 degrees Fahrenheit. The Santa Clara Bouquet Bridge site however, had an average temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit. This is also the location where most of the wastewater from the Valencia treatment plant is released. Specific conductivity was measured in µg/L and is an indicator of dissolved solids which contribute to water pollution. Bouquet Creek and San Francisquito Canyon had the lowest levels, falling between 400 and 600 µg/L. Whereas, the other three sites had values ranging from 1100 to 1400 µg/L. All sites had an average pH falling between 7.5 and 8.5, which means none of them were too acidic or too basic. For salinity measurements, San Francisquito Canyon and Bouquet Creek had the lowest salinity values at around 0.26 psu. The Santa Clara River McBean Bridge site had the highest value at 0.73 psu, while the other two sites had an average of around 0.63 psu. Lastly, dissolved oxygen was measured by percent saturation. A value measuring above 90% saturation means the stream is healthy. San Francisquito Canyon and Bouquet Creek were the only two sites that had dissolved oxygen levels above 90%. The Santa Clara River Bouquet Bridge site almost reached this mark and only fell short 0.03% saturation. Soledad Canyon had an average value of 81.6% and the Santa Clara McBean Bridge site fell at 73.4% saturation.

Tree Growth

March 7, 2016/in /by Sean Anderson

This weekend I had to leave my trees in the care of some friends because I went on a trip to the Owens Valley with my water management class. I always get a little worried when I trust my work to others but they did a great job and there has yet to be any growth in the trees. The Owens Valley was very beautiful and we learned about the confusing bureaucracy that surrounds the Owens Valley. Hopefully next week my trees will provide me with more interesting results to report.

Research Update 3/6/16

March 7, 2016/in /by Sean Anderson

This week was spent interpolating data on ArcGIS and I began calculating the area of each year to find the total area and direction the population is moving toward.

In addition, I spent the last few days in the Eastern Sierras for Water Resources Management where we learned about and followed our water supply from the Owens Valley to campus. Here’s a picture from the trip below.

Continuing to Collect Data

March 6, 2016/in /by Sean Anderson

This week I was able to process a few more sample populations of Sand crabs and have found evidence of microparticle ingestion in every one. Sadly the ubiquity of plastic pollution in the sandy beach ecosystem continues to be the case. I have 24 sand crab sample populations processed and have approximately 20 more to finish. I will be attending the CSU Chancellors conference this Tuesday March 8th with my colleague, Tevin Schmitt. We will be discussing our individual research projects on how petroleum bed pollution takes its toll on the sandy beach ecosystem.

Meet Some Student Researchers

March 6, 2016/in /by Sean Kelly

The Interdisciplinary Research Learning Community is an opportunity for CI students to enter into interdisciplinary dialogue and hone their professional skills. Meet some of our Spring students, and hear about the variety of projects they are working on. Student research and the IRLC are two things that make CI a special place for students and faculty.

Who will you become at CI?

by

The Importance of Place: Computer Programming

March 4, 2016/in /by Stefany Chadkewicz

I always thought I knew what place was. Place: a particular position or point in space. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less. It wasn’t until this semester that I realized how wrong I was. Place is a part of who are as people. Place defines us in ways that I never knew how. In this class alone, my understanding of place was turned upside down.

Beginning with the neighborhood reflection turning to our spatial story, everyone’s place was defined and everyone’s was different from each other. Mine alone just showed how different I was from everyone. I never thought that the area I grew up, the places I went, the neighborhoods I called home would define me that much. Getting into Social Explorer also opened my eyes to the importance of place. Researching the neighborhoods of my high school and our brother school (both within 3 miles of each other) had different readings of ethnicity, poverty, education, and employment.

Place isn’t just for the person. Place is used in all areas of study. I never thought of how my majors had to do with place. I only saw computer science and mathematics as programming for websites or for solving equations. Before this class, I’d never imagine that programming could help in place. How wrong I was.

In the article Semantic enrichment of building data with volunteered geographic information to improve mappings of dwelling units and population by Carola Kunze and Robert Hecht, programs such as OpenStreetMap (OSM) are used to help gather data to “specify non-residential usage in residential buildings” (Kunze & Hecht 4). These programs help identify potentials and reveal limitations of integrating semantic OSM data for building evaluations. They helped introduce a different way to upgrade building plans based on the number of the population and housing. In Angelos Mimis, Antonis Revolis, and Marianthi Stamou’s article Property valuation with artificial neural network: the case of Athens, an artificial neural network (ANN) approach is used to examine property values, particularly Athens’ property values. This approach uses GIS to “enrich explanatory variables and model the spatial dimension of the problem” (Mimis, Rovolis, Stamou 127). The results of their findings are shown below.

What the results uncover is the non-linear relationships of the property value with respect to floor space and age. In Development of a spatial decision support system for flood risk management in Brazil that combines volunteered geographic information with wireless sensor networks by Flávio E. A. Horita, João Porto de Albuquerque, Lívia C. Degrossi, Eduardo M. Mendiondo, and Jó Ueyama, the programs Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) were used to provided effective flood risk management by building a conceptual model. The objective was to combine the best parts of the two programs into one program to present the combined information in a web-based decision support tool. The evidence gathered can support the combination of data from specific sources so it’s easier to gather that information. Through this, it was shown that the integration of the right data sources provides more “complete, accurate and updated information about the situation in the affected areas” (Horita, Degrossi, e.t. 91), building onto previous findings and making it better.

These articles are just three of the thousands I found of how computer programming can be helpful in the subject of place. These programs were created to make it easier for scientists, sociologists, psychologists, and everyone else to gather the information needed for them to make their hypotheses, theories, breakthroughs, etc. They no longer have to do things door-to-door to gather the information, it’s at their fingertips.

Works Cited

Horita, F. E., Albuquerque, J. P., Degrossi, L. C., Mendiondo, E. M., & Ueyama, J. (2015). Development of a spatial decision support system for flood risk management in Brazil that combines volunteered geographic information with wireless sensor networks. Computers & Geosciences, 80, 84-94. Retrieved February 19, 2016.

Kunze, C., & Hecht, R. (2015). Semantic enrichment of building data with volunteered geographic information to improve mappings of dwelling units and population. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 53, 4-18. Retrieved February 19, 2016.

Mimis, A., Rovolis, A., & Stamou, M. (2013). Property valuation with artificial neural network: The case of Athens. Journal of Property Research, 30(2), 128-143. Retrieved February 19, 2016.

Prep for BWET Mentoring

March 3, 2016/in /by Sean Anderson

The AARR Team has been gearing up for participating in some more community outreach through the BWET Mentoring program. For two weeks, beginning March 7, the R. J. Frank Middle School students will learn and discover the possibilities of underwater exploration and benefits of research through the use of Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). Not only do they get to learn about these vehicles, but they actually get to build their own out of PVC pipe and deploy them in water to complete assigned tasks.

Our team has been putting kits together and came up with a new design for this year.

20160302_185717
All semester the Team has been working diligently to finish the build of 8 Pufferfish Mate control boards and the complete wiring to the motors. These control boards will allow the students to maneuver the ROVs when they are deployed in water.

20160302_193758

Our Team’s 3-D printers are being used to make the motor mounts for the Underwater ROVs.

20160302_175921 20160302_175932

Why Place Matters in My Discipline

March 2, 2016/in /by Esther Osorio

Place is defined as “a portion of space available or designated for or being used by someone. Now, that of course is one of many definitions but, some believe there is more to the meaning. For years now the concept of placement has been utilized as a form of generalizing an area in order to receive data/outputs from said area. Place is important to me because average humans crave the feeling to belong. Place immediately connects you to a community or a system. For example, in an Environmental Science class, one will learn of a “system”. That is defined as a network of relationships among parts, elements or components. Place is important because those who are in relation to the connectivity of it create that system. A system is influenced by those who are in it. Place allows us to understand what is occurring in a specific area and why it is happening. Without “place” we would not understand the culture of a specific area of people.

This concept of place is applied to many different fields of collective data. In the article “The Social Ecology of Residential Patterns and Membership in Immigrant Churches”, authors Helen Ebaugh, Jennifer O’Brien, and Janet Chafetz gathered data through a geographic information system (GIS) in order to further understand the different religious congregation’s new immigrants create or join when settling in the United States(pg107). Not only is “place” classified as Texas, it is also classified as the specific church in which these immigrants choose to attend. This is important because through these findings, they were capable of understanding why specific people chose specific churches. Through interviews they understood why people benefit from specific churches, how they are accepted and how they interact with others(pg109). This is important because we are able to compare the differences between different churches and the community within it.

Through GIS, the authors concluded that churches of the same ethnic backgrounds are generally placed further in distance. Whereas, churches of the same religious background were placed closer in distance from each other. For example, the average distance to religious congregations in miles for St. Mary’s Catholic Church is 2.7. 2.7 miles from St. Mary’s is St. Catherine’s Catholic Church(pg109). Sociology is the study of the functioning of human behavior. This data relates highly to my field because it helps me further understand why humans specifically reach out to a certain community. Whether or not the benefits lure them in, or the religious and ethnics backgrounds, or simply because they feel at place. Some areas are more segregated than others, just like in Houston, Texas.

Geographic information systems and the concept of place is beneficial when we are using it to further inform populations of the unbalanced effects of certain situations in their community. For example, in the article “Food Deserts and Overweight Schoolchildren: Evidence from Pennsylvania” authors Kai Schaft, Eric Jensen, and Clare Hinrichs gather data on the many food deserts in Pennsylvania, and how many are within school districts. The “place” in this article is not only Pennsylvania, but food deserts as well. These areas are where children are most overweight. Now, it seems strange that the areas in which food sources are at a minimum, the children are overweight. This is so because, these children are exposed to poverty, therefore leading to bad eating habits due to lower prices and bad produce(pg162).

The use of GIS maps in this study concludes that food desert district areas are the ones with no major grocery stores within the area. The closest ones are within the outskirts of the deserts. Poverty within these districts are higher in rates as well(pg164). The income per capita in the food desert districts is about 15,600. The average in non-food desert districts is about 17,500. This has helped me to further understand how many lower income families are all grouped in the same area. This causes the area in which they reside to have a lower city income therefor minimal resources. This concludes unhealthy eating habits and overweight children. I understand now that those with lower income will purchase the more abundant food for a lower price, no matter how unhealthy.

Geographic Information Systems do not only better display the data and findings of researchers, but it also helps other visualize the various populations and conditions in which others or themselves are living in. Applying place to my discipline is such a broad field because there are so many types of data we can select in Sociology. The study of human interaction and behavior is a never ending habit. I can apply it to the ethnic backgrounds of certain communities. The actions and habits of a certain group of people. As well as other things like, the type of people moving to an area and why, or the reasons why people vote in one area and not the other. The topic that has interested me most recently, is why the suicide rates are so high in specific areas of Washington, California. If and when I choose to apply place into my own project it will surely be in that field. GIS systems may be used for awareness as well, we can help others visualize these happenings, and hopefully change them gradually.

Works Cited:

Ebaugh, Helen Rose, Jennifer O’Brien, and Janet Saltzman Chafetz. “The Social Ecology of Residential Patterns and Membership in Immigrant Churches.” EBSCO Host. Wiley Blackwell, 1 Mar. 2000. Web.

Schaft, Kai A., Eric B. Jensen, and C. Clare Hinrichs. “Food Deserts and Overweight Schoolchildren: Evidence from Pennsylvania.” EBSCOhost. Wiley Blackwell, 1 June 2009. Web.

Places and backgrounds

March 2, 2016/in /by Cindy Mijangos

Everyone understands the basic idea of everyone being their own person; no one should be an exact replica of anyone else. In order to completely understand how “place” matters in my discipline, keep in mind that we do not all come from the same background. Therefore, everyone has their own interpretation of how “place” matters in their discipline. My interpretation of how the word place is used in this statement is, where I live, where I was raised, or who I was raised around. In other words, my own personal background, the basic who, what, when, where, and why. It may be hard for some individuals to explain how their background matters in their discipline. It might have not been the best for any other personal reason. When I was growing up I was one of those individuals who rarely spoke about my background and I did not understand why until my senior year of high school. The school year had recently started and I already had counselors and teachers asking what I would like to major in. At first, like many seniors in high school, I would answer with “undeclared for now” but once I started writing my personal statements and cover letter I came to a conclusion that I would like to major in psychology. Only because as I was peer-editing other personal statements I realized how much one’s background allows you to understand why one acts the way they do. That is when I realized that not all places or neighborhoods are the same they are all different just as humans are.

In the article, “A Prospective Three Generational Study of Father’s Constructive Parenting: Influences from family of Origin, Adolescent Adjustment, and Offspring Temperament” by David C. R. Kerr, Deborah M. Capaldi, et. Al., a study is conducted in Oregon to see how constructive parenting is maintained by engendering positive adjustments in offspring. Participants used in this study were based off neighborhood risks for delinquency assessed in early childhood. Researchers concluded that first generation parents influenced second generation parents indirectly with positive adjustments but not adolescent behavior. Second generation parents were influenced by first generation parents on parenting the third generation. Second generation parents influenced the third generations behavior problem (p. 1257). Results showed that, children who were being raised in neighborhoods with higher delinquency rates were the ones with negative adolescent behavior, where as in a neighborhood where delinquency was not as high showed positive adolescent behavior (p. 1262-1263).

In the article, “Increases in Maternal Education and Low-Income Children’s Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes” by Jessica F. Harding, a study is conducted to see the relationship between increases in maternal education and cognitive skills and behavioral problems in first grade. Participants in this study were chosen from low-income families from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Researchers concluded that the increases in external behavior problems were larger for children whose mothers had less than a college degree (p. 583). Mothers who moved away from where they grew up and have had children are influenced to go back to school and have a career for their children. They do not want their children to live the way they did even though their parents did not have a bad childhood. It simply is that parents want their children to do bigger and better things than they ever did (p. 591).

In the article, “Community Violence, Family Conflict, and Preschoolers’ Socioemotional Functioning” by Jo Ann M. Farver and Yiyuan Xu, a study is conducted to see the correlation among family conflict, community violence, and young children’s socioemotional functions and explore how children’s social cognition and mother’s psychological function may intervene with this exposure. Participants were chosen based on inner-city head start programs with high rates in crime and violence. Researchers concluded that children’s social awareness and mother’s depressive symptoms partially mediated the effects of community violence and family conflict on outcomes for children (p. 160-162). Results show, that the more violence they are exposed to in their neighborhood the more children show violence or someone shows violence towards them.

Now that I have explained each of these articles I am able to how explain place matters in my discipline. All three articles discussed the impact on one’s background. Meaning, they gathered data from either the participant’s parents, where they grew up, how they were raised, or how much violence was or wasn’t in their neighborhood area. Just because one is in a different place does not mean there is less violence or less people of a certain race. For example, in my place and perseverance course we use census tracks to compare the percent of people in different races and low income families from different neighborhoods. A big factor in any of the variables we examined was the location and how the location was presented. Did they have a high violence rate? Were all the moms in the neighborhood single moms? This helped me come to a conclusion that no matter how far in life we go, the place we come from will always a part of our disciple. Our discipline is based on past experiences, whether they were good or bad. A big part of our past experiences is where we grew up. Once again explaining how “place” plays a big role in my discipline.

My Rhetorical Analysis

March 2, 2016/in /by Sergio Cordon

My Rhetorical Analysis

For me my rhetorical viewpoints on reading can vary from person to person without realizing it. Though the most common is with the use of media such as TV, newspapers, radio and other forms of communication. This is one of the forms that we use to implicate rhetorical analysis but also one of the most generally used due to its increase in efficiency and usage over the years. For instance, they say “Even as you read this chapter, more ways to get those messages to you quickly and in a persuasive manner are being developed. Media is constantly asking you to buy something, act in some way, and believe something to be true, or interact with others in a specific manner” (Bolin 46). They try to persuade you into buying something and also help us to evaluate the ethics of messages and how they can affect us personally. Everyone has been influenced by one commercial on TV at least once in their lives and decided they must have this it because they believe it can help affect or cause a new effect to them. For example, I was also affected by trading cards games like Yu-gi-oh and Pokémon when I was a kid and they said it would help me make new friends. It did help me meet new people because they also played and it led me to meet my best friend Ivan in elementary school. Because I was influenced by that message it lead me to encounter new people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise if I was not persuaded by them. We could also go into greater understanding of rhetorical analysis. Since we use rhetoric to help us analyze, understand and different types of rhetoric they have become so commonplace that we don’t even realize were doing consciously and only think as if it were natural. Sometimes they will occur during a specific situation or context. For example a football commercial comes on during specific times of day to perhaps reinforce the message and make you more likely to listen to it. Another way to view is for the audience or the ones listening to these messages. They say “those who are the (intended or unintended) recipients of the rhetorical message” (Bolin 49). Rhetor can make all sorts of choices based on their audience or in other words their targeting group which can be small or big depending on the message they intend to deliver. A third part could be called the constraints of a rhetoric which can be called constrains of decision and action needed to modify an exigence a.k.a urgent need or demand. Constraints can also vary from simple matters to complex situations to problems. For instance, I had to limit the concept of life on a 1000 word essay when I was in high school and was affected by how to write out or explain my reasons, examples, personal experiences, and information for both convenience and understanding for others. These limitations can make it difficult to help get our message across but not entirely impossible so long as we use the correct choice of words we can easily get our message across to anyone provide it we make it as simple as possible.

Works Cited

Bolin, Laura Carroll. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 45-58. Writing Spaces. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.

Posts