Coastal sage scrub (CSS) is a unique and highly threatened vegetation community in coastal Southern California and northern Mexico, with 90 percent lost to development, agriculture, and invasive species. Understanding CSS recovery is critical to its survival. This study looks at the long-term effects of grazing and cultivation in southern California by tracking the extent of exotic grassland in two valleys in the Santa Monica Mountains over sixty years. The rates of native shrub return in a grazed valley were compared to those in a cultivated valley. Transects compared physical differences of stable and recovering grassland-shrubland boundaries. Native shrubs returned to the grass valley that was grazed nearly one and one-half times faster than the valley that was cultivated. Cultivation may result in a type conversion of CSS to a new steady state of exotic annual grassland. The field transects showed that stable and recovering boundaries had different physical characteristics.
Archive for February, 2012:
An examination of 90th percentile wave heights along the west coast of the United States in connection with atmospheric oscillations in the Pacific Basin
The vast expanse of ocean that lies to the south of the Bering Sea is a genesis for some of the highest waves in the Pacific Ocean. This area of low pressure, known as the Aleutian Low due to its proximity to the Aleutian Islands, is the location where midlatitude storms travel, uninterrupted by landmasses, creating wind speeds of over 40 knots that blow over great distances for consecutive days. It is during this period when wave heights can frequently reach 25 feet or higher sending significant swells into the west coast of the United States. In this study, approximately 30 years of ocean buoy data are analyzed to find significant spatial and temporal signatures that relate to El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific North American (PNA) oscillations. The research focuses on 90th percentile wave height data collected from 10 buoy stations along the west coast of the United States and were examined to find correlations with warm and cold ENSO phases as well as PNA variability. Lastly, a visual model based on 700mb geopotential height anomalies from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data were examined to display unique atmospheric conditions that relate to significant swell events propagation along the west coast of the United States.
Normalizing life through participation in after school activity programs: A grant proposal
The purpose of this project was to write a grant to develop and fund an activities program to help normalize the lives of adolescents in foster care group homes. The program would be offered through Dangerfield Institute of Urban Problems, a non-profit residential group home in a Los Angeles urban community. The program goals include building the self-esteem and resiliency of the youth and enhancing their overall well-being and development. The program will be based on a token economy system, which will be used for the youth for their participation in the after school activities. The Weingart Foundation was identified as the potential funder of this project. The actual submission of the grant proposal to the foundation was not a requirement of this project.
After-school program for foster care children: A grant proposal
The purpose of this project was to design an after school program for elementary school level children who are in foster care, identify potential funding sources, and write a grant to fund an after-school and extracurricular activities for elementary school children in foster care. The program was developed to improve youth’s academic achievement and peer-relationships by providing a comprehensive after-school program for foster children. A search for potential funding sources via the Internet and grant database, FC Search, resulted in the selection of the Variety the Children’s Charity as the funding source for this project. A grant was then written to support an after-school and extracurricular activity program for Families Uniting Families Foster Family Agency in Long Beach, California. Actual submission and/or funding of the grant was not required for the successful completion of this project.
A qualitative examination of how equal opportunity and diversity factors are communicated to African American airmen
According to research performed by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, African-American service members consistently rate their experiences with and perceptions of the military equal opportunity and diversity climate significantly more negatively than white service members or even other ethnic or racial minority groups. To help understand the cause of these perceptual differences, interview data from African American Airmen was collected and analyzed for themes using a hybrid grounded theory and phenomenological approach. Themes emerged regarding how African American Airmen felt equal opportunity and diversity climate were communicated to them. An application of symbolic interactionism, relational dialectics, and psychological scholarship on microaggressions illuminates the results and provides a frame for better understanding military service for minorities. Exploring the military experience from the perspective of the service members themselves can help inform military equal opportunity and diversity policies to work toward improving the service experience for African Americans.
A support program for children and families experiencing trauma and grief: A grant proposal
Children who experience trauma, grief, and loss face numerous barriers and are more vulnerable to risk factors of physical, emotional, social, and educational difficulties. A support program would provide services to help children and their families cope with these risk factors. The purpose of this project was to design a support program, identify a potential funding source, and write a grant to help fund the program, which would provide services to children and families in the city of Whittier, California, who are experiencing trauma and grief. The program consists of therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and support groups. Funds would be requested to implement this program to assist children and families in improving their quality of life.
A critical review of psychosocial interventions for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder
A significant number of veterans must face various military traumas, as evidenced by the 200,000 veterans receiving an average of $20,000 in disability benefits for PTSD in 2006. Yet, literature remains quiet limited as far as the efficacy of different treatments for PTSD and the limitations of the studies suggest caution in regarding conclusions about outcomes. This thesis sought to provide a critical review of psychosocial intervention research from the years 2000 to 2010 for veterans with PTSD, resulting in the examination of 17 published studies. The studies are organized into a few primary categories: cognitive processing therapy, exposure and exposure-like therapies, present centered therapy, skill building focused CBT, and multimodal therapies.
End of the line: The Wright’s Creek commercial fishing graveyard, Belhaven, North Carolina
A 1994-1995 survey Babits and Kjorness 1995) discovered the presence of several abandoned vessel complexes in Wrights Creek, a rural area located between the Pamlico and Pungo Rivers in North Carolina. These graveyards, composed of the discarded vessels and equipment of the commercial fishing community, serve a purpose for those who create and maintain them along their property boundaries, bestowing them with meaning and regard. Rather than aesthetically displeasing “eye-sores,” these sites serve as a repository for the memories and nostalgia of the commercial fishers. In addition, they provide materials for salvage and reuse, aiding in maintenance of working vessels, proving a financial boon in the process of boat breaking. The archaeological study of a commercial fishing graveyard allows interpretation of the social, economic, and technological changes affecting the surrounding community. The concentration of abandoned vessels in this embayment presents a unique opportunity to study behavioral patterns associated with a rural boat graveyard, as the adjacent community is still interacting with the discarded material remains. Continued interaction demonstrates social significance as the surrounding community has intimate ties to the abandoned. This area of Belhaven, once a vital waterway for commercial fishers, is experiencing economic decline as evidenced by the high number of vessel and equipment graveyards.
A gray matter: Sentencing disparities between elderly and non-elderly homicide perpetrators
When most people hear of an elderly person involved in a homicide, they are likely to assume he or she is the victim rather than the perpetrator. However, with the rapid increase in the age of the American population due to the baby-boomer generation, elder-committed homicide is becoming a very real scenario. The purpose of the current research was to examine disparities in the verdict and sentencing of elderly homicide perpetrators. The first study explored how the age and mental status of the homicide perpetrator impact sentencing decisions. This study found that elderly perpetrators do receive less punitive sentences than younger perpetrators. The second study sought to determine whether implicit attitudes were the cause of the leniency effect, utilizing the implicit associations test. There was no support for this hypothesis. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
American foreign policy in French North Africa: The 1958 Sakiet crisis and the Good Offices Mission
American diplomatic involvement in the French-Algerian War of 1954-1962 was never as heightened as it was during the aftermath of the French bombing of the Tunisian border town of Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef on February 8, 1958. The bombardment of Sakiet, and the deaths of dozens of Tunisians, sparked a crisis drawing international attention to France’s colonial war in Algeria. Having interests on both sides of the conflict–France, a European NATO ally and Tunisia, a pro-American Arab ally–the Eisenhower administration, along with the MacMillan Government of Great Britain, offered France and Tunisia their good offices as mediators. Hoping to settle the problems on both sides of the divide, the Anglo-American Good Offices Mission struggled to deal effectively with the situation, all the time worrying about both alienating France, or losing the western orientation of key allies such as Tunisia. No agreement was reached at the end of the Good Offices Mission. Instead French Prime Minister Felix Gaillard fell from powerï¼› the Fourth Republic followed soon afterwards and was replaced by Charles de Gaulle who took it upon himself to reconcile France and Tunisia. Nonetheless, the mission was not a total failure because American relations with Tunisia were strengthened and France was forced to look at how the Algerian War affected its allies in the Cold War. However, the Good Offices Mission did not signify any true reorientation in American policy towards France as Eisenhower–and then later Kennedy–maintained a basic middle of the road policy towards the French-Algerian War.