Discussion

Discussion

(Article 3)
I loved how the discussion section of the article decided to split it into three distinct sections. The first discussion was focused on the predation by the post-recruits of N.lapillus and provided many examples from other forms of literature. The images and figures help reestablish the points from the results sections and also helped us understand more what those figures mean. The next sections also are broken down to predation by recruits of N. lapillus and the other was the patterns of abundance and distribution of mussels and the role of whelk predation. The last section which was discussed gave a sort of a hint of another long term research that could be conducted based of the results of this study.

(Article 2)
The second article's discussion is separated by headlines as well. The language and feel of this article felt more personal and less scientific. They really took the time to discuss what the results of the study meant and how we are going to interpret them for further research. The end of the discussion wasn't really a good ending. Personally I feel like the end of the discussion should have wrapped up all the points made better.

(Article 1)
This articles discussion was packed with a lot of figures and tables. I felt like these should have been represented in the results section. The discussion though did reflect what all the figures and tables meant. The authors discussed other things that have affected the data such as oil spills. This was a good way to explain the numbers from the results sections.


What I have noticed throughout reading all of these discussion sections is that a well balanced discussion is the way to go. The proper balance of figures and discussion is necessary to help iterate the main ideas of the results you have conducted. The language also needs to be relate-able to the reader, knowing who the audience is going to be is important. It is usually the biggest part of the scientific paper. For our Nucella research though I don't anticipate our discussions being this long. We are focusing on only one subject. For me it is the marginal growth so the discussion of marginal growth with references will not be as long as these, but will be the bulk of my scientific paper.

Thursday October 21, 2010

Article 1

Citation:  Gosselin LA, Chia FS. 1995. Distribution and Dispersal of early juvenile snails: effectiveness of intertidal microhabitats as refuges and food sources. J. Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 214(1):195-229

Why is it useful?  It is useful because it talks about difference species of Nucella and their habits of feeding.

What hypothesis do they test? Are microhabitats affecting juvenile snail’s mortality?

Why do they test this hypothesis? Because these researchers love snails!

Why is this hypothesis relevant to your research? This affects the marginal growth of SNAILS!

Article 2

Citation:

Berlow EL, Navarrete SA. 1997. Spatial and temporal variation in rocky intertidal community organization: lessons from repeating field experiments. J Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 214(1):195-229

Why is it useful? The organization of barnacles effects on how many of them are being knocked off by my snail! That is also relevant to my marginal growth!

What hypothesis do they test? Do the distribution of barnacles and bare spaces affect whelks and limpets?

Why do they test this hypothesis? They test this because they believe that whelks and limpets play a key role on patches of Semibalanus which are on rocks.

Why is this hypothesis relevant to your research? Yes I am actually sending this article to myself as I type so I can use this later. It seems to be very relevant to my research.

Article 3

Citation:

Hhunt HL, Scheibling RE. 1998. Effects of whelk (Nucella lapillus(L.)) predation on mussel (Mytilus trossulus (Gould), M-edulis(L.)) assemblages in tidepools and on emergent rock on a wave-exposed rocky shore in Nova Scotia, Canada. J Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 226(1):87-113

Why is it useful? This article talks about the predation of Nucella.

What hypothesis do they test? Can the size of Nucella be predicted from the diameter of the drill hole created while feeding?             

Why do they test this hypothesis? Because if the snail isn’t there anymore and you want to find out the size of the snail, you can do so by measuring the hole.

Why is this hypothesis relevant to your research? This can also help me look for things about the snail in which I will be discussing.

Citation:

Grout JA, Levings CD, Richardson JS. 1997. Decomposition rates of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and Lyngbyei’s sedge (Carex lyngbyei) in the Fraser River estuary. Estuaries 20(1):96-102

Why isn’t it useful? This article does not have to do with snails and marginal growth.

What hypothesis do they test? They test to see if they decomposition rates between the two plants in the river have different rates of decomposition.

Why do they test this hypothesis? They want to see which is faster so that they can manage habitats better.

Why isn’t this hypothesis relevant to your research? This hypothesis is talking about an estuarian ecosystem, while what I am looking for is a tidal ecosystem.

Data Analysis Work Sheet, and Blog Entry

Today in class we met in the computer lab to go over some review of statical analysis. We reviewed over the mean, median and mode and rediscovered how to find them using Excel.

Scenario 1 was a good help to look at how to use excel. I haven't done excel work since stats last fall and it really refreshed my memory. After class i went home and dug out my stats notebook to go over my notes in my hand writing to really remember how these things work. The class period was good working together with my peers helping each other out is always the way to go. There were things I also had to ask from people and trying to figure out how to use the error bars was also a little bit challenging.


1) Did going in for help effect scores?
2) If papers are reviewed by Becca prior to turning them in then the scores will be higher.
3) Going in for help will not affect the grade of the paper.



t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances

  Variable 1 Variable 2
Mean 86.533333 68.8
Variance 162.8381 277.7333
Observations 15 10
Hypothesized Mean Difference 0
df 16
t Stat 2.8532018
P(T<=t) one-tail 0.0057522
t Critical one-tail 1.7458837
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.0115045
t Critical two-tail

P-Value is .0058
The hypothesis should be rejected.
But we did not take into account the type of students
that go in for help. Those whom usually go in more
often for help tend to get a higher grade on their final
paper.

9053  

T-Tests

Thinking about the t-test

With what assumption does Hinton open the last paragraph on p. 78?

Hinton assumes that if the probability is higher than the difference in the sample mean, then the null hypotheses is true.

What is the null hypothesis presented on p. 78?

The null hypothesis is that the new scheme will produce better results than the older shceme.

What statistical tool do we use to determine “what differences would we expect between two samples simply by chance alone” (78-9)?

                We use the mean. We calculate both means and find the difference.

What is a t-test? (cite other sources if you need to)

                A t test will test the distribution of a set of data if the null hypothesis is supported.

What are the assumptions of the t-test?

                That there is normal distribution.

The example beginning on p. 83 is a related t-test, because the two sets of data come from the same people (the same group of students takes a test before lunch and after lunch). Summarize this example beginning 83 by answering the following questions:

1.       What question is this teacher asking? (the answer that she predicts for this question is her research hypothesis)

That the children in her class were better at their work in the morning rather than in the afternoon.

2.       What data does she collect to test her research hypothesis?

She collected data from math test which required the student’s concentration.

3.       Is this a one-tailed test or a two-tailed test?

This is a one tailed test.

4.       What is the statistical null hypothesis?

That the morning and afternoon tests will have the same scores.

5.       What level of significance did the teacher choose?

Significance level is p = 0.05

6.       Does she accept or reject her statistical null hypothesis?

She rejects the null hypothesis.

7.       Does she accept or reject her research hypothesis?

She accepts her research hypothesis because her students performed better in afternoon vs. morning .

In biology, however, it’s more common that we have an independent t-test. You can, as Hinton discusses, compare how men and women respond to a sleeping pill. Answer the following questions about the example beginning on p. 88.

1. What is the research hypothesis?

That the effect of the sleeping pill will be different on men rather than women.

2. What data were collected to test the research hypothesis?

Six men and eight woman agreed to participate in the study. Over two weeks they either took a placebo or the bill. They did not know which they were being given. The numbers of the placebo were compared to that of the sleeping pill nights.

3. Is this a one-tailed test or a two-tailed test?

Two tailed Test.

4. What is the statistical null hypothesis?

That there will not be a difference between men and women.

5. What level of significance was chosen?

Df = 12, p = 0.05

6. Is the p-value greater than or less than the level of significance?

The p-value is the same as the level of significance of 5%. (0.05

7. Should you accept or reject the statistical null hypothesis?

The null hypothesis should be accepted.

8. Should you accept or reject the research hypothesis?

The results of the research hypothesis should be rejected.

What question does the t-test answer, in general?

                If you should accept or reject results.

What question do you think you’ll use the t-test to explore in your research project?

                If the marginal difference will have an effect on knocking off barnacles.

Yamane Gilman (2009)

Effects of Body Temperature on Predation Rates.

Background: The author talked about the predation rates of Nucella ostrina which happened to vary between treatments.  There is not really a clear reflection of just the procedure based of the results.

Question: The question is clear; the author is asking whether or not body temperature has an effect on predation rates among Nucella ostrina.

Method: They conducted the experiments with different exposure rates. One set was exposed to a higher submerged temperature where as the other set were exposed to a different submerged temperature.

Observation: They discovered that Dogwhelks which were exposed to a higher temperature had consumed 75% fewer barnacles. They also had less tissue mass then the others which were exposed to different temperatures. There was no difference in the consumption rates of the other two tanks. The exposed tank had a higher rate than the controlled group.

Conclusion: The conclusion is that the higher the body temperature the higher the consumption of barnacles become. Reading through there seems to be a difference between aquatic water tempura and aerial temperature in effects of functions.

These answers did take a little bit of time to just think about before they could be answered. I definitely had to read through the results section a couple of times to really grasp the idea.

Thursday, October 5, 2010

Talks began with Copernicus and his idea of a heliocentric solar system.

It then lead into talks of forming a scientific paper. We looked at the chicken document to show us the format of a paper written in that style.

Formating scientific Paper

• Abstract - short and sweet so that people can see what you have written to decide if they want to read on
• Last paragraph of the introduction must be the most important. Should outline the hypothesis
• IMRD
• Acknowledgments are there to thank people that have helped you

The building of the cube exercise really helped invoke creative thinking on our group. We successfully completed the mystery cube that was given to us BESIDES the shading on that mystery side, which we missed. The one we built though was pretty awesome, had countries and capitals some multiplication it was just all out fun.

-Ali Mainayar

First Day of Class

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The day started off with group work trying to identify traits of a specific artifact. An observing exercise to help us hone in our inferring skills. Our artifact was the StormTrooper Mr. Potato head which was missing its hands. The Potato head was clean and silly.

Next we were handed the syllabus to look over and ask any questions if anything needed clearing up. The point was brought up that the total points in the course added up to 90, which caused a in class discussion about where the extra 10 points should be divided up too.

After the discussion we had to predict the number on one side of a cube. The curve ball was thrown when we all realized it was the number 2 but not that it had a grey background. This was the point of perhaps your observation is wrong.

Variables - on a die
Numbers categorical not ordered.
Shadings, yes or no?
Categorical unordered?
Making a prediction based on present information.

-Ali Mainayar