Biological Evolution Spring 2018 WRITING ASSIGNMENT (200 POINTS) DUE DATE FOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT: APRIL 29TH 2018 CASE STUDY IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY–For this writing assignment you will pick a peer-reviewed scientific study in the field of evolutionary biology and analyze it in depth. In this assignment, you will write a concise abstract of the chosen work, an introduction on the overall topic within evolutionary biology the study is focused on, and a discussion on how the presented methodology and results of the research advanced (or not) our knowledge within the area of evolutionary biology the study is focused on. Writing this assignment will help you learn to read primary scientific literature and to combine the results from the literature and your ideas into a thoughtful analysis of research in evolutionary biology. Your written analysis should follow the guidelines and formatting below. AVOIDING PLAGIARISM: The assignment must be your own and in your words. There are numerous ways to communicate similar thoughts. So, you should take from various authors, process the information, produce something that is clearly your own product, and use citations to give credit to the original source for BOTH conceptual ideas AND any data that you present. Lack of proper attribution and/or plagiarized text/figures will result in severe grade penalties. TOPIC IDEAS: For topic ideas try key word searches in a database search engine (e.g., Web of Science, Google Scholar, or PubMed, see below). Some journals that you may want to scan for topic ideas are more generalized journals with many broad papers including “BMC Evolutionary Biology”, “PLOS ONE”, and “Nature: Scientific Reports.” This is by no means an exhaustive list, and because interesting evolutionary biology research is found in nonevolution specific journals, I encourage you to use Web of Science or Google Scholar as well. I am happy to talk to you in or out of class or by email about topics that you are interested in. It is highly recommended that you talk to me about your ideas if you are unsure whether your chosen topic fits the assignment. Page 1 of 5 Biological Evolution Spring 2018 RESOURCES: Library and Research Resources: General library research resources are available at: https://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/ Searching for Scientific Literature: The search engines most useful to you will most likely be Google Scholar, PubMed, and SCSU Library Databases. To access SCSU Library Databases go to https://stcloud.lib.mnscu.edu/subjects/ guide.phpsubject=databases&_ga=2.72959635.1427582946.1509550654-1742056851.1 496248952 To access Google Scholar go to https://scholar.google.com and enter search terms. To access PubMed go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, choose “search PubMed” and enter search terms. All search engines use boolean criteria [and, or, not etc…] to combine search terms. NOTE: in Web of Science and Google Scholar you can look at the papers that were cited in a given paper, as well as all the papers that have cited that paper since its publication. Retrieving Scientific Papers: In SCSU Databases you can use the “Download PDF” button to go directly to PDFs of journal articles that interest you if SCSU has access. 1) Determine if SCSU has access to the journal of interest for the publication year. Link to E-journals from the library home page, and search for the title (e.g., “Evolution and Development”). 2) If SCSU does not have e-access, the hard copy may be in the stacks. Link to Catalog: Books & more from the library home page and search for the journal title. Check that the volume and issue numbers match the article you need. 3) A great service of the SCSU library is electronic document retrieval. If the library has the article you need in the stacks, you can have it scanned and retrieve it as a PDF. If the library does not have the article you need, you can request an electronic copy. The library will find another library with the article, have it scanned, and you will be able to retrieve it as a PDF. These services usually just take a couple of days and can be found under the “Request Materials” link from the SCSU library home page. Page 2 of 5 Biological Evolution Spring 2018 The SCSU Writing Center: The SCSU writing center (The Write Place) is another great resource at the university. They are there to help you not only with your grammatical problems but also with the logical structure of your term paper and presentation. Please don’t hesitate to take advantage of this resource. To learn more about this click here: https://www.stcloudstate.edu/writeplace/

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Population: In this section of your report, you will summarize key elements of the research study and analyze the population impacted by the health issue. A. Summarize the people, places, and times represented in the research study to provide context for your report. [IHP-330-02] B. Describe three social and behavioral determinants strongly associated with the public health issue in the research study. Be sure to cite specific examples from the research study to support your description. [IHP-330-01] C. Describe three known disparities associated with the health of the specific population. Be sure to cite specific examples from the research study to support your description. [IHP-330-01] D. Explain how the identified social and behavioral determinants relate to the disparities you identified, and explain your reasoning. [IHP-33001]

II. Health Issue: In this section of your final project, you will analyze the health issue in focus in the research study. You will draw conclusions about the health issue through your review of the research study and by conducting outside research on the topic. A. Describe the risk factors associated with the public health issue. Support your description with evidence from the research study and your independent research. [IHP-330-02] B. Describe the mode of transmission of the public health issue. Support your description with evidence from the research study and your independent research. [IHP-330-02] C. Determine the incidence and prevalence of the health issue using the data from the research study to perform the appropriate calculations. [IHP-330-03] D. Determine the mortality rate of the health issue using the data from the research study to perform the appropriate calculations. [IHP-33003] E. Interpret the odds ratio to determine the strength of association between the potential sources of exposure and the disease. [IHP-330-03] F. Using your research and analysis, draw connections between the population and public health issue. Consider where you identified common elements, what you learned about the public health issue by studying the population, and what you learned about the population by studying the public health issue. [IHP-330-03]

III. Levels of Prevention: In this section, you will describe the prevention strategies used by the epidemiologists in the research study. You will identify a strategy for each level of prevention and differentiate between the strategies. A. Describe a primary prevention strategy represented in the research study, and explain how it addresses key factors impacting the health issue of the specific population. [IHP-330-04] B. Describe a secondary prevention strategy represented in the research study, and explain how it addresses key factors impacting the health issue of the specific population. [IHP-330-04]

C. Describe a tertiary prevention strategy represented in the research study, and explain how it addresses key factors impacting the health issue of the specific population. [IHP-330-04] D. Explain how the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies differ in how they address the key factors impacting the health issue in the research study. [IHP-330-04]

IV. Conclusion: Now that you have analyzed the research study, you will develop a research question to further investigate the specific health issue and population, select an appropriate research design, and explain the importance of the research to the field of public health. A. Using your analysis of the research study, develop a research question to further investigate the specific public health issue and impacted population. [IHP-330-05] B. Determine whether an observational or experimental research design would be more appropriate to investigate your research question. Be sure to justify your determination. [IHP-330-05] C. Explain the importance of further research for improving the quality of health in the specific population. What is the potential benefit? [IHP330-05]

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1. If you have two glasses, one full of water and one half full of water, and you add the same amount of salt to each of them, which will be saltier? Why? Which will be denser? Why?

2. If you have two glasses, one full of red hot water and one full of blue cold water, which one is denser? What would happen if you combined them? Why?

3. Which has a higher heat capacity, a kilogram of water or a kilogram of sand? If you heated both of them at the same temperature for the same amount of time, which would be warmer? If you take the heat source away, which will cool more quickly? Why?

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Questions for summary (discussed in class):

 1.Which questions were addressed by the authors for this particular paper?

 2.What does “empirically derived” mean?

3.How do the authors justify the questions asked?

4.What is considered to be “modern extinction”?

5.What are the five vertebrate taxa considered in this study?

6.The authors focused on using conservative rates of modern extinction in
 order to avoid skepticism and to see if the use of the term “6th mass
 extinction” is still justified. They used two different categories: “highly
 conservative rates” and “conservative rates”. What were the criteria used
 for each category (see Table 1)?

7.Why is 1900 considered separately from 1500 as the time for modern
 extinction rates?

8.What was the range found for modern extinction rate in relation to
 background extinction rates?

9.How many years would it have taken for the vertebrates that went
 extinct in the last century to go extinct if the background extinction rate
 had prevailed?

10.According to the authors, how does the loss of biodiversity affect
 human well-being?

11.Outside of human well-being, why do you think we should care about the
 loss of biodiversity?

12.What do the authors conclude from this analysis?

13.On a human time scale, do the authors consider the loss of biodiversity
 (and biodiversity benefits) permanent? Why or why not?

14.What suggestions do the authors make to avoid such loss (specifically,
 what are three notably important issues that must be urgently dealt with)?

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