Category: Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

Blog Post 2 – Sources of Scientific Information

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I chose a paper from the TRU library: Assessment of atmospheric pollution with heavy metals and nitrogen using Pleurozium schreberi mosses as bioindicator in Latvia: spatial and temporal aspects. It is written by an expert in the field, it includes in-text citations, and it also contains a bibliography. It is ACADEMIC MATERIAL. It was reviewed by at least 1 referee before publication. It is PEER REVIEWED. It describes “methods” in details and also reports all results of the field/lab study completed by the authors. It is RESEARCH MATERIAL.

Reference:

Tabors, G., Nikodemus, O., Dobkeviča, L., Kļaviņa, L., Ajanoviča, A., Viligurs, K., & Krūze, I. (2017). Assessment of atmospheric pollution with heavy metals and nitrogen using Pleurozium schreberi mosses as bioindicator in Latvia: spatial and temporal aspects. Environmental & Experimental Biology, 15(2), 143–150. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.22364/eeb.15.

 

Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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This is a scientific article called “The effect of dietary antioxidants and exercise training on the escape performance of Southern Corroboree frogs” published in science direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376635717302164

This is an academic peer-reviewed research paper. This article is an academic paper because it contains in-text citations and a bibliography, and is written by an expert in the field. This article is a peer-reviewed research paper because it contains a methods and a results section. The author did the research.

Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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The source I have chosen to categorize is:

Liu J, Wang J, Lee S, Wen R (2018) Copper-caused oxidative stress triggers the activation of antioxidant enzymes via ZmMPK3 in maize leaves. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0203612. https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203612.

I got this source from the online database Ebscohost.  The authors are affiliated with a university so this would denote that they are experts in the field.  The documentation stating this is:

“1 School of Life Science, Shanxi Datong University, Datong, PR China, 2 School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, PR China, 3 Maize Research Institute, Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinzhou, PR China”

There are in-text citations, the numbers in parenthesis are the citations:

“In all eukaryotes, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade is a universal mod- ule of signal transduction, serving at the center of intracellular signal transduction. Diverse sig- nal pathways use MAPKs to regulate a variety of cellular functions in response to different extracellular stimuli [14–16]. There is abundant evidence that plant MAPKs can be activated by a variety of metals and play an important role in response to the metals such as AtMPK3 and AtMPK6 in arabidopsis [13], four distinct MAPKs in alfalfa, OsMPK3 and OsMPK6 in rice [17–19], and ZmMPK5 in maize [20]. A MAPK, named ZmMPK3 of group A in maize, shares high identity with the above MAPKs.”

The article does have a bibliography:

References

  1. Huffman DL, O’Halloran TV. Function, structure, and mechanism of intracellular copper trafficking pro- teins. Annu Rev Biochem. 2001; 70: 677–701. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.biochem.70.1.677PMID: 11395420
  2. Luo ZB, He J, Polle A, Rennenberg H. Heavy metal accumulation and signal transduction in herbaceous and woody plants: Paving the way for enhancing phytoremediation efficiency. Biotechnology Advances. 2016; 34: 1131–1148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2016.07.003 PMID: 27422434
  3. Hall JL. Cellular mechanisms for heavy metal detoxification and tolerance. J Exp Bot. 2002; 53: 1–11. PMID: 11741035
  4. Alaoui-Sosse ́ B, Genet P, Vinit-Dunand F, Toussaint ML, Epron D, Badot PM. Effect of copper on growth in cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus) and its relationships with carbohydrate accumulation and changes in ion contents. Plant Sci. 2004; 166: 1213–1218.
  5. Atha DH, Wang H, Petersen EJ, Cleveland D, Holbrook RD, Jaruga P, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed?term=Dizdaroglu%20M%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22201446etal. Copper oxide nanoparticle mediated DNA damage in terrestrial plant models. Environ Sci Technol. 2012; 46:

These 3 attributes denote that it is academic material, the academic material has been accepted before it was published which means it is peer-reviewed academic material.

“Editor: Ricardo Aroca, Estacion Experimental del Zaidin, SPAIN

Received: March 6, 2018

Accepted: August 23, 2018

Published: September 17, 2018”

There is a methods and results section in the article which means this is academic peer-reviewed research material.

Materials and methods

Plant materials and design

Maize (Zea mays L. cv. Nongda 108) seeds were incubated and grown hydroponically in the square plastic pot (30 cm × 20 cm) filled with 1 L Hoagland solution (0.156 μM Cu2+) in a light chamberunder a light intensity of 200 μmol m-2 s-1 and a 14 h: 10 h (28 ̊C: 22 ̊C) day: night regimes. There are 30 seedlings in each pot. The solution was changed every 2 d.

When the second leaves were fully expanded, the seedlings were exposed to a series of the concentration of Cu2+ solution (0, 10, 50 and 100 μM) respectively, for 24 h at 25 oC under a continuous light intensity of 200 μmol m-2 s-1. Two replicates were prepared for each concen- tration. There are 30 plants in each trait. To test H2O2 level, the roots of the maize seedlings were immersed into 1 mgmL-1 solution of 3,3-diaminobenzidine (DAB) (pH 3.8) for 8 h under light at 25 oC, and then were exposed to 100 μM CuCl2 for 0, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h, respec- tively. To further investigate the effects of antioxidant dimethylthiourea (DMTU, 5 mM) and MAPK inhibitor (PD98059, 100 μM), the seedlings were pretreated with them separately for 8 h and then exposed to 100 μM CuCl2 for 24 h under the same conditions as described above. After Cu2+ treatments, the second leave from each seedling was sampled for analysis.

Results

H2O2 production in the leaves of maize exposed to Cu2+

The reaction of DAB with H2O2 can produce the deep brown polymerization product. DAB stain, a histochemical method for H2O2 detection, was employed to test H2O2 accumulation in leaves of maize plants exposed to Cu2+ stress. It was observed that brown polymerization prod- ucts were barely seen in the base of leave in the control plants, which indicated that the level of H2O2 was low (Fig 1A). Visible H2O2 accumulation was observed in leaves of maize plants exposed to Cu2+ for 2 h, which was obviously seen at 4 h. Cu2+ led to H2O2 production in a time-dependent manner (Fig 1A). H2O2 content in leaves of maize plants were examined using the methods of spectrophotometry.

Blog Post 2

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  1. A) say what the source is (and/or link to it)\

Text book off my shelf

Veterinary Herbal Medicine – Susan G. Wynn , Barbara J. Fougere

Publisher MOSBY ELSEVIER ( academic publisher of textbooks and academic journals)

 

  1. b) classify it into one of the four types of information discussed in the tutorial

Written by experts in the field :

Susan G. Wynn – DVM RH . Bells Ferry Veterinary Hospital , College of Veterinary Medicine

Barbara J. Fougere –  BSc, BVMS(Hons) MODT, BHSc ( Comp. Med), CVA(IVAS) CVCP, CV Herb Med, MHSc ( Herb Med) ENR All Natural Vet Care in Sydney Australia

The source was contributed to by 18 other academics in the field . Ranging from Botanists, Veterinarians, RHTs and Toxicologists . Though from my understanding a text book is technically not peer reviewed.

Under the acknowledgment section  “ We could have not have done it without our authors, and we have relied upon reviewers to survey the information for errors. We thank Joni Freshman, Patricia Upton , David Wintson and Eric Yarnell for previewing the chapters for accuracy. “

The  book reports studies, results, methods but not from the authors themselves.

 

I would say that this textbook is an academic material .

I chose this categorization because though this book was contributed to by other experts – there is no mention of an official review. They do mention in the acknowledgment section that the they thank the reviewers – but these names mentioned are not acknowledged as experts in the field. The text is written by experts in the field. It contains scientific material, bibliographies, in text citations and method/result sections. Though the scientific studies were not conducted specifically by the authors.  

 

Blog 2 Sources of Scientific Information

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My Source is an Original Article published in the Journal of Biogeography in 2012.  The link to this article is: Guggisberg_et_al-2012-Journal_of_Biogeography

This was written by an expert in their field.  It includes in-text citations and a bibliography.

The paper had four referees for it.

IT also contains a section with results.

Therefore, based on the criteria for evaluating scientific information this paper is an academic, peer-reviewed research material.

 

Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information – A Flowery Website

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I have selected a resource that is very much not a peer-reviewed scientific document, but is nonetheless informative. It is the type of document that I regularly see my high school students consult, though its use is limited in higher academic programs.

The webpage is part of The Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society, an organization celebrating Japanese-Canadians in the Victoria area. As part of its guide the Japanese past time of “Hanami,” or cherry blossom viewing, the site offers information on some of the different species of cherry and plum trees that exist in the area. The information includes latin names of the plants and physical descriptions of the leaves and blossoms.

Although the authors are listed, their qualifications and affiliations are absent. They may happen to be very capable botanists but that is not possible to assess with the information provided. The article does not include citations or a bibliography. This document is unquestionably non-academic material.

http://www.vncs.ca/wordpress/activities/hanami-%E8%8A%B1%E8%A6%8B-cherry-blossom-viewing/

Sources of Scientific Information

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Wang, C., Wan, J., Mu, X., & Zhang, Z. (2015). Management planning for endangered plant species in priority protected areas. Biodiversity and Conservation, 24(10), 2383-2397. doi: 10.1007/s10531-015-0928-2

The article by Wang et al. is an academic peer-reviewed research paper about conservation management of 84 endangered plants in China. This paper was discovered through the University of Ottawa library search engine. This source is academic material because it has three characteristics: it was written by experts in the field that are associated with Beijing Forestry University, the article includes in-text citations and it also contains a bibliography. This source is peer-reviewed because it was published in the International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation and has the referees listed. Lastly, the article by Wang et al. is categorized under research material because it contains a methods and results section.

Blog Post 2 for Katarina Duke

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A source of ecological information is the International Journal of Ecology which can be found by clicking the URL link provided below.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijecol/

A peer-reviewed research article requires the works to be written by an expert in the field, include in-text citation, contain a bibliography, be reviewed by a referee prior to publication, and report methods and results of a field study.

An article that interested me and meets the requirements to be classified as a peer-reviewed research article is “Benthic Macroinvertebrates Diversity as Bioindicator of Water Quality of Some Rivers in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.” (Refer to attachment for research article)

The objective of the research was to clarify and evaluate the water quality of several rivers in East Kalimantan province of Indonesia by utilizing the benthic macroinvertebrates diversity and physical-chemical parameters of the river water.

The research article was written by Fatmawati Patang, Agoes Soegianto, and Sucipto Hariyanto belonging to the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences and Technology at the Universitas Airlangga. All experts in the field of water quality, biology, and toxicology. For instance, Agoes Soegianto is a PhD recipient and professor at Universitas Airlangga. He is an expert in marine biology, environmental contamination, and ecotoxicology, having completed over 40 research works in his field.

The article includes in-text citation accompanied by a bibliography and was reviewed by Panos V. Petrakis prior to publication. Petrakis is associated with the Institute for Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems as a research scientist. Petrakis’ expertise in ecology and biodiversity makes him a suitable candidate for referee for the research article.

The source also reports the result of a field study completed by the authors who include in the article their method and results. Their method included sampling a minimum of 100 individual benthic macroinvertebrates and the measurement of numerous water quality parameters (i.e. dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, pH, turbidity, etc.). The macroinvertebrates were identified and enumerated to calculate the diversity, dominance and evenness index as they are frequently used to predict the conditions of aquatic environments. The results supported their hypothesis that the Karang Mumus River recently received pollutants that could be classified as dangerous.

To further support the classification of the article as peer-reviewed research material, the article is offered though the International Journal of Ecology that operates as a peer-reviewed open-access journal.

Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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The source of ecological information I have chosen for this blog entry is a journal article titled:

“Assessing the effect of emergent vegetation in a surface-flow constructed wetland on eutrophication reversion and biodiversity enhancement”

This journal article is an example of academic, peer-reviewed research material for the following reasons:

Academic Source:

  • Written by experts in the field

  • Includes in-text citations

  • Contains a bibliography

Peer-reviewed Material:

  • Includes a revision submission date and acceptance date

  • Credit is given to anonymous reviewers in the Acknowledgements section of the article.

Research Article:

  • Methods and Results sections within the article indicate that original research was conducted.

Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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For this blog post I decided to choose The Journal of Applied Ecology. This site is an excellent source of ecological information and is very reliable. I decided to pick this site because it has a variety of journals related to animals and their behavior which I believe will help me with regards to my final project. I am planning on studying “How does having human activity incorporated into the forest affect certain activity of animals in the surrounding area?” so I believe this will be a very helpful and reliable source of information.

This is the link for the homepage:

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652664

I will most likely be using journals from this part of the website, which is the journals of animal ecology:

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652656 

The Journal of Applied Ecology is an academic, peer-reviewed, review and research material.

I believe this to be the case since the site was written by experts, contained a bibliography and in-text citations, the journals had also been review by at least one referee before publication and there was a methods and results portions.

Reference:

Chalfoun, A. and Martin, T. 2007. Assessments of habitat preferences and quality depend on spatial scale and metrics of fitness. Journal of Applied Ecology 44(5): 983-992.