Effects of commuting and mode of transportation on performance, affect, cardiovascular activity, and frustration tolerance

It was hypothesized that making a commute elevates blood pressure, causes negative affect, reduces frustration tolerance, and impairs performance on simple and complex cognitive tasks. This hypothesis was tested by varying choice and type of commute in an experiment in which 168 volunteers were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions. The behavior of subjects who drove 30 miles or rode on a bus for the same distance were compared with the reactions of students who did not commute. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that subjects who made the commute showed lower frustration tolerance and deficits on complex cognitive task performance. Commuting also raised pulse and systolic blood pressure. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) were performed in an effort to identify physiological and emotional reactions that may mediate these relations. No mediational relationships were uncovered. ^

Flanerie: A post -reflexive mode of urban research inquiry

Urban ethnographic studies in social science usually proceed from within a pre-figured research framework that guides field activity and filters what is considered see-worthy and study-worthy to those phenomena which are in some way necessary for the fulfillment of specific research agendas. Reliance on formalized ethnographic research methods to explore the city, and the reflex to intellectualize that which is observed by using them, frequently leads to the neglect of much of what comprises the ethnographic richness of city-life through an overly-contemplative intellectuocentrism. ^ Flânerie, an avocational, proto-sociological ethnographic mode of urban exploration and observation originating in early-nineteenth-century Paris, is representative of an alternate approach to exploration and study of the city—one less subject to a compressed horizon of ethnographic experience. It affords insight into a broad range of phenomena taking place in interstitial urban space and time which often escape the instrumentally overly-determined gaze of professionalist research inquiry. ^ The present work addressed the fact that the concept of flânerie , though occasionally invoked in discussions of methodology in urban sociology and cultural studies, had not been subjected to a systematic attempt to relate it to the research methods of these disciplines. Though as a typological figure the flâneur is thought to have disappeared long ago, practices represented by the concept continue to be engaged in by persons inside and outside of academia who approach city life and social science with a perspective somewhat transcending the reified dichotomies of private-professional and art-and-science. This study transferred aspects of the experience of the city embodied in the flâneur to the realm of ethnographic urban studies and the building of grounded social theory, finding flânerie to be crucial to the development of a refined knowledge of urban life, and an important means by which previously overlooked social phenomena and silenced avenues of research inquiry might be exposed. ^ The conclusions reached found a “flâneuristic” approach to the city as being beneficial to research practice and the vitalization of urban ethnographic inquiry, by affording opportunities for exposure to, and immersion within, an expanded range of quotidian social phenomena that have frequently escaped the academicist gaze. ^

Seed dispersal and reproduction patterns among Everglades plants

In this study three aspects of sexual reproduction in Everglades plants were examined to more clearly understand seed dispersal and the allocation of resources to sexual reproduction—spatial dispersal process, temporal dispersal of seeds (seedbank), and germination patterns in the dominant species, sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense). Community assembly rules for fruit dispersal were deduced by analysis of functional traits associated with this process. Seedbank ecology was investigated by monitoring emergence of germinants from sawgrass soil samples held under varying water depths to determine the fate of dispersed seeds. Fine-scale study of sawgrass fruits yielded information on contributions to variation in sexually produced propagules in this species, which primarily reproduces vegetatively. It was hypothesized that Everglades plants possess a set of functional traits that enhance diaspore dispersal. To test this, 14 traits were evaluated among 51 species by factor analysis. The factorial plot of this analysis generated groups of related traits, with four suites of traits forming dispersal syndromes. Hydrochory traits were categorized by buoyancy and appendages enhancing buoyancy. Anemochory traits were categorized by diaspore size and appendages enhancing air movement. Epizoochory traits were categorized by diaspore size, buoyancy, and appendages allowing for attachment. Endozoochory traits were categorized by diaspore size, buoyancy, and appendages aiding diaspore presentation. These patterns/trends of functional trait organization also represent dispersal community assembly rules. Seeds dispersed by hydrochory were hypothesized to be caught most often in the edge of the north side of sawgrass patches. Patterns of germination and dispersal mode of all hydrochorous macrophytes with propagules in the seedbank were elucidated by germination analysis from 90 soil samples collected from 10 sawgrass patches. Mean site seed density was 486 seeds/m2 from 13 species. Most seeds collected at the north side of patches and significantly in the outer one meter of the patch edge (p = 0.013). Sawgrass seed germination was hypothesized to vary by site, among individual plants, and within different locations of a plant’s infructescence. An analysis of sawgrass fruits with nested ANOVAs found that collection site and interaction of site x individual plant significantly affect germination ability, seed viability, and fruit size (p ≤ 0.050). Fruit location within a plant’s infructescence did not significantly affect germination. As for allocation of resources to sexual reproduction, only 17.9% of sawgrass seeds germinated and only 4.8% of ungerminated seeds with fleshy endosperm were presumed viable, but dormant. Collectively, only 22% of all sawgrass seeds produced were viable.

Seed Dispersal and Reproduction Patterns Among Everglades Plants

In this study three aspects of sexual reproduction in Everglades plants were examined to more clearly understand seed dispersal and the allocation of resources to sexual reproduction— spatial dispersal process, temporal dispersal of seeds (seedbank), and germination patterns in the dominant species, sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense). Community assembly rules for fruit dispersal were deduced by analysis of functional traits associated with this process. Seedbank ecology was investigated by monitoring emergence of germinants from sawgrass soil samples held under varying water depths to determine the fate of dispersed seeds. Fine-scale study of sawgrass fruits yielded information on contributions to variation in sexually produced propagules in this species, which primarily reproduces vegetatively. It was hypothesized that Everglades plants possess a set of functional traits that enhance diaspore dispersal. To test this, 14 traits were evaluated among 51 species by factor analysis. The factorial plot of this analysis generated groups of related traits, with four suites of traits forming dispersal syndromes. Hydrochory traits were categorized by buoyancy and appendages enhancing buoyancy. Anemochory traits were categorized by diaspore size and appendages enhancing air movement. Epizoochory traits were categorized by diaspore size, buoyancy, and appendages allowing for attachment. Endozoochory traits were categorized by diaspore size, buoyancy, and appendages aiding diaspore presentation. These patterns/trends of functional trait organization also represent dispersal community assembly rules. Seeds dispersed by hydrochory were hypothesized to be caught most often in the edge of the north side of sawgrass patches. Patterns of germination and dispersal mode of all hydrochorous macrophytes with propagules in the seedbank were elucidated by germination analysis from 90 soil samples collected from 10 sawgrass patches. Mean site seed density was 486 seeds/m2 from 13 species. Most seeds collected at the north side of patches and significantly in the outer one meter of the patch edge (p = 0.013). Sawgrass seed germination was hypothesized to vary by site, among individual plants, and within different locations of a plant’s infructescence. An analysis of sawgrass fruits with nested ANOVAs found that collection site and interaction of site x individual plant significantly affect germination ability, seed viability, and fruit size (p < 0.050). Fruit location within a plant’s infructescence did not significantly affect germination. As for allocation of resources to sexual reproduction, only 17.9% of sawgrass seeds germinated and only 4.8% of ungerminated seeds with fleshy endosperm were presumed viable, but dormant. Collectively, only 22% of all sawgrass seeds produced were viable.