KINDS OF

RESEARCHES
ACROSS
FIELDS
 Creating forest
management units with Hot
Spot Analysis (Getis-Ord
Gi*) over a forest affected
by mixed-severity fires
( Environment &
Abstract
The rehabilitation of degraded subtropical natural forests is a global concern. A detailed
assessment of their structure is a challenging and costly prerequisite because diverse
structures exist depending on the cause and degree of degradation. Recent remote sensing
concepts and technologies provide a detailed picture of actual forest structure, even in
difficult terrain. When it comes to planning and implementing rehabilitation measures on
the ground, however, meaningful forest management units (FMUs) must be created that
are large enough to allow technical implementation, but which are also homogenous in
structure. To date, the delineation of FMUs has, in most cases, been achieved qualitatively
based on expert knowledge.
The aim of this contribution is to develop and demonstrate a method for creating and
delineating meaningful FMUs based on quantitative information acquired from remote
sensing and spatial statistics. Therefore, a case study was conducted in a 3940-ha fire-
degraded forest area in the Argentinean cloud forest of Yungas Pedemontana. A plot-based
field inventory and an aerial survey with an unmanned aerial vehicle were conducted. The
Adjusted Canopy Coverage Index (ACCI), as a metric for stand structure, was formulated
to predict basal area from canopy height models. A SPOT6 image of the area was object-
based segmented and classified into four fire-severity strata by training it with the ACCI
values. The resulting classification presented a mosaic pattern in which the stands are
homogenous but far too small (average 3129 m2) for planning adaptive management.
Therefore, features in close proximity with similar structure (i.e. ACCI values) were
aggregated using the Hot Spot Analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*) tool from the Arc geographic
information system environment to create FMUs. Clusters were calculated at four scales:
10, 20, 30 and 40 ha (resulting in threshold radii of 178, 252, 309 and 357 m,
respectively), using ACCI values as the variable of aggregation. As a result, average
cluster areas were obtained of 33.9 ha for the shortest threshold distance of analysis and
138.5 ha for the greatest threshold distance. The tool significantly aggregated between
30.7% and 60.8% of the area into either coldspots or hotspots of ACCI, facilitating the
delineation of FMUs for the planning of adaptive rehabilitation measures. There is a trade-
off, however, between the gain in area of the FMUs and the loss of homogeneity: for a 357
m distance threshold, 12% more of the area was misclassified, compared with a 178 m
threshold.
F. Rosie & G. Becker. Creating forest management units with Hot Spot Analysis (Getis-
Ord Gi*) over a forest affected by mixed-severity fires. Taylor & Francis online, 2019.

Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00049158.2019.1678714
Pollen analysis of volcanic
ash in Pompeian human
skeletal remains
(Science)
Abstract
The time of the Vesuvius eruption, which perished Pompeii, Herculaneum and
surrounding areas in ad 79, was initially set on the 24–25 August, based on written
contemporary documents of the ancient historian Pliny the Younger. This date has been
challenged by archaeologists and volcanologists/meteorologists, who moved the time of
the eruption further into the autumn and eventually agreed to the final date 23–25 October.
The October date has been confirmed by the latest discovery of inscriptions in freshly
excavated areas of Pompeii suggesting the mid-late October eruption. In our original
project of 2008 we attempted to solve the problem of the eruption time by analysing pollen
mixed with falling down volcanic ash, and preserved intact in nasal cavities of the victims
in Pompeii.
The entire pollen spectrum, 31 different types, was evaluated with the focus on the exact
time of the volcanic eruption. No date of eruption could be suggested from this study. The
analysis revealed an unusually high amount of pollen from Hedera, an insect pollinated
plant flowering from September to October in the area of Pompeii. Among three samples
of ash from nasal cavities of two children and an adult considered uncontaminated Hedera
pollen was found in noses of both children but not of the adult. This result is the first
physical proof of Hedera as medicinal plant used for the treatment of respiratory tract
disorders nearly 2000 years ago.

M. Weber, S. Ulrich, A. Ciarallo, M. Henneberg, and R. Henneberg. Pollen analysis of

volcanic ash in Pompeian human skeletal remains. Taylor & Francis online, 2019.

Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00173134.2019.1638448
Preparing for a physical
activity intervention in a
secure psychiatric
hospital: reflexive
insights on entering the
ABSTRACT
The medical model for treating severe mental illness has been critiqued for its insensitivity
to the subjective and contextual facets of patients’ illness and recovery experiences. For
many, mental health service efforts are a function of the social and institutional contexts in
which they occur. Understanding this therapeutic context is therefore critical to planning
effective care strategies. In this confessional tale, the first author reflects on one-year (>300
h) within a medium secure psychiatric hospital – a process carried out to inform the future
design of a physical activity intervention. Drawing upon reflexive journal entries,
conversations across the research team, and personal introspection, three broad
methodological insights are offered; 1) becoming a reflexive researcher, 2) negotiating ‘the
self’ in a mental health context, and 3) cultural means to logistical ends.
Researcher reflexivity is a challenging and effortful process that can lead to
unforeseen insights into the research setting. Practicing reflexivity supported the
first author towards an awareness of her own stigmatised attitudes to mental
illness and how they might affect the research process. Immersive fieldwork is
time-consuming and presents a raft of methodological difficulties, but it supports
deep and nuanced insights unavailable through other methods. When seeking to
effectively tailor intervention strategies to the unique needs of a given healthcare
setting, this added depth and nuance is valuable. Health intervention work that
draws on immersive qualitative methods, rather than tokenistic forms of ‘patient
public involvement’, is better equipped to deliver strategies that are not only
efficacious but also effective
Eva Rogers,Anthony Papathomas &Florence-Emilie Kinnafick.2019

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rqrs21/current
 Quantitative Studies of
Literature. A Critique and
an Outlook
( Computer and
Humanities)
Abstract
The present paper is a critique of quantitative studies of literature. It is argued that such
studies are involved in an act of reification, in which, moreover, fundamental ingredients
of the texts, e.g. their (highly important) range of figurative meanings, are eliminated from
the analysis. Instead a concentration on lower levels of linguistic organization, such as
grammar and lexis, may be observed, in spite of the fact that these are often the least
relevant aspects of the text. In doing so, quantitative studies of literature significantly
reduce not only the cultural value of texts, but also the generalizability of its own findings.
What is needed, therefore, is an awareness and readiness to relate to matters of textuality
as an organizing principle underlying the cultural functioning of literary works of art.
W. van Peer, Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Computers and the
Humanities (Aug. - Oct., 1989)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/30204369
 Incompatible
Paradigms?
(Agriculture and Economic)
 Abstract:
The disciplinary paradigm of agricultural economics emphasizes rational behavior in a world
constrained by scarce resources. The research practice focuses on the quantitative modeling
of optimization behavior. These models, though, only offer limited support to practitioners in
solving real-world problems. Qualitative research approaches contribute to this task,
particularly with research in developing countries. Participatory action research was
introduced in the seventies; case studies have been employed more often and have been
discussed more intensively. But different qualitative approaches are hardly known in
agricultural economics. However, exemplary theses, published in the series "Research
Reports on Economics in Horticulture," show the successful use of qualitative research
methods in German agricultural research.
Bitsch, Vera (2000).An assistant professor at the Institute of Economics in Horticulture at
University of Hannover, Germany.
http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs000167.
Study of Music Listening
Behavior in a Social and
Affective Context
(Music)
Abstract:
A scientific understanding of emotion experience requires information on the contexts in which
the emotion is induced. Moreover, as one of the primary functions of music is to regulate the
listener's mood, the individual's short-term music preference may reveal the emotional state of the
individual. In light of these observations, this paper presents the first scientific study that exploits
the online repository of social data to investigate the connections between a blogger's emotional
state, user context manifested in the blog articles, and the content of the music titles the blogger
attached to the post. A number of computational models are developed to evaluate the accuracy
of different content or context cues in predicting emotional state, using 40,000 pieces of music
listening records collected from the social blogging website LiveJournal. Our study shows that it
is feasible to computationally model the latent structure underlying music listening and mood
regulation. The average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the
content-based and context-based models attains 0.5462 and 0.6851, respectively. The association
among user mood, music emotion, and individual's personality is also identified.
Yi-Hsuan Yang Academia Sinica, Research Center for Information and Jen-Yu Liu

Academia Sinica, Research Center for Information

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6521395
 The Doctrine of
Constructive Presence and
the Arctic Sunrise Award
(2015): The Emergence of
the “Scheme Theory”
(Law)
Abstract
The doctrine of constructive presence allows a coastal state to pursue and arrest a vessel on
the high seas, even though that vessel may have never entered the state’s jurisdiction. This
is because the vessel’s presence can be “constructed” inside the state’s jurisdiction when a
connection can be found with other craft, suspected of having committed an illegal act
there. This article explores the impact of the Tribunal’s decision in the Arctic Sunrise case
(2015) on constructive presence. It shows that the necessary link between the vessels is
now found when there exists evidence of participation in an illegal scheme.

Reece Lewis. The Doctrine of Constructive Presence and the Arctic Sunrise Award
(2015): The Emergence of the “Scheme Theory”. Taylor & Francis online, 2019.

Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00908320.2019.1617927
 The association between
attending a grammar school
and children’s socio-
emotional outcomes. New
evidence from the
millennium cohort study
Abstract
Several areas in the UK allocate children to secondary schools based on exam results at
age 11. While many studies have investigated how attending academically selective
schools affects pupils’ subsequent educational attainment, we know very little about how
grammar attendance affects other outcomes, such as pupils’ self-confidence, academic
self-esteem and aspirations. We investigate this by applying propensity score matching
techniques to rich data from the Millennium Cohort Study. Results show that attending a
grammar school has very little impact upon pupils’ socio-emotional outcomes. Expanding
grammar schools is therefore unlikely to benefit pupils in this respect.

J. Jerrim & S. Sims. The association between attending a grammar school and children’s
socio-emotional outcomes. New evidence from the millennium cohort study. Taylor &
Francis online, 2018.
J. Jerrim & S. Sims. The association between attending a grammar school and children’s
socio-emotional outcomes. New evidence from the millennium cohort study. Taylor &
Francis online, 2018.

Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00071005.2018.1518513
GROUP MEMBERS:
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Mirador
Pingoy
Ciasico
Pedroso
Carlon
Santacera