Week 6 Assignment

Part one:

Since the 18th century, how and why has industrialization in Europe and the USA changed the demographic and social system in terms of individual's wealth?

Part two:

a. The main concepts here are 1. Industrialization and 2. Change in individual income/wealth

b. Indust* AND (Wealth OR Income OR Money)

I would have like to also include something like 'AND (Demographics OR "Social Structure")' here, but I worry that this would have narrowed the search too far to find enough reasonable articles.

c. For the search I had to tweak it a bit until I got some results that were what I was mostly looking for. What I finally used was: industrialization in the united states AND (Wealth OR Income OR Money)

d. The two database limiters I used were both to limit the sources to scholarly articles, as well as limiting the publication date of the articles from 1998 to 2018 to get more relevant and recent articles.

Part three:

The main things I learned in doing this was that searching in databases is a little more difficult than simply to generate a search statement. After developing a research question and then a search statement I thought that it would be a cinch to search the database, but it didn't turn out that way. After completing the search I got a lot of unnecessary articles, as well as articles that weren't even related to what I wanted. For example - economics of cigarettes. After my first search didn't work very well, added the 'AND (Demographics OR "Social Structure")' and this didn't help at all. I was still getting quite poor results. After going back to the main page and typing industrialization in, industrialization in the united states popped up in the search terms and I used that along with my second part of the search statement. This worked much better than before, and despite still having some irrelevant articles I was able to get quite a few good ones pertaining to my subject. Using the database limiters were also extremely useful to result in high-quality and recently published articles. Overall, I would say that rather than spending a lot of time developing a research statement, testing it by searching in the database and iterating upon it after a few searches would be the best way to do it. I would also say that one search statement may not fit everything you need for your research question. For example the search that I finally ended up using focused on industrialization in the USA, while I still had to worry about Europe.

Week 5 Assignment

It may be important to note that as of last week I have shifted from automobiles effect on society and pollution to industrialization in early Europe's effect on modern society.

Part 1:

Search term: Industrialization
Subject term(s): INDUSTRIALIZATION, INDUSTRIALIZATION & the environment, INDUSTRIALIZATION -- History, INDUSTRIALIZATION -- Social aspects, INDUSTRIALIZATION case studies.

These are all the subject terms that pertain to my interests.

Search term: Demographics
Subject term(s): DEMOGRAPHY, DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEYS, DEMOGRAPHIC databases, DEMOGRAPHIC research

Part Two:

I found this lesson helpful due to not knowing how to use either parentheses, or truncation in my search terms within databases. Previously I would type in a near-English search, but using Boolean operator and subject terms will be helpful in the future to narrow results to exactly what I want. I have no questions about Boolean search terms, I would like to know how to narrow results even more, as I usually get articles and books that do not pertain to my subject. Not having used truncation, parentheses, and largely not using Boolean operators in the past however, I may find exactly what I need to do now that I know about these techniques.

Week Four Assignment

Week Four Assignment

Part 1

1.      I used Gale Virtual Reference Library, and the eBook Automobile Emisions.

2.      Transport emissions accounted for 23% of world energy greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, automobiles accounted for 44.5% of that number. 64% of transport emissions come from the world’s 30 wealthiest states.

3.      Some subtopics include different types of fuel, as well as the usage of fuel by countries besides America.

4.      Some research questions include what types of fuel release the most emissions. Which countries contribute the most to pollution, and in what ways.

5.      Automobile Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Automobile Emissions, Pollution, Fuel Emissions

6.      This eBook uses far fewer sources than the Wikipedia article last week. It has specific statistics to back its claims up and is largely objective. It’s degree of detail is large, and it does not necessarily focus on the history and development of its subject, but rather the significance today. It makes a point to touch on related issues, not focusing entirely on automobile pollution. They did not focus on the same topic, but the eBook was focused more on presenting recent information, rather than giving background knowledge of the subject.

Part 2.

1.      Air pollution, the automobile, and public health

2.      Automobiles – Motors – Exhaust gas – Toxicology – United States

Automobiles – Motors – Exhaust gas – Physiological effect – United States

Automobiles – Motors – Exhaust gas – Environmental aspects – United States

Air – Pollution – United States

3.      This book talks about the health effects of automobile emissions in general. Talking about different types of specific pollution, and what specific types of negative health effects it causes.

4.      To get this book, I would request the item from the Owen Science and Engineering Library after signing in with my WSU ID. I would then set the pickup location to the WSUV library location.

Part 3.

1.      Automobile emissions: an overview.

2.      Automobiles -- Motors -- Exhaust gas -- Environmental aspects

Automobiles -- Motors -- Combustion -- Environmental aspects

Automobiles -- United States -- Pollution control devices

3.      There is very little information in the details section of this eBook, but by looking at the source, it seems to be an informational paper about car emissions, as well as the types, and types of combustion that cause them. Furthermore, this doesn’t appear to be an eBook, even though it was listed as such.

Part 4.

Overall, this process was useful in learning how to use different sources for research and how to access a print book if needed. The overall process was somewhat confusing as its very easy to get either a lot of unneeded results or worrying when you narrow your search to the point of not finding anything on the topic. In the future, I might look into going to the library for further help in locating sources for a subject, as they will have more knowledge and guide me in the right direction for further research.

Week Three Assignment

Part 1.

11.  My research topic is the invention, and development of automobiles in society.

22. 

A. I used Carrot2

B. I learned that electric, and steam automobiles were popular contenders initially, but fell out of favor after the ford assembly line mass-produced gasoline cars.

C. Some subtopics I read about include the Henry Ford assembly line, pollution, non-gasoline powered cars, and the impact that cars have had in society – notably the main spread transportation advantage.

D. What are car’s effects on the atmosphere, and ecology? How have automobiles increased the efficiency of human life? What are the viability of non-gasoline engines?

E. Henry Ford Model T, Automobile, Vehicles, Cars for personal use, Transportation, Cars effect on the environment, car pollution

Part 2.

11.  https://www.dft.gov.uk/vca/fcb/cars-and-air-pollution.asp

22.  The websites domain includes gov.uk, this indicates that it is almost definitely a government website located in the United Kingdom.

33. Clicking on the about us link shows that they are an executive agency located in the UK. They do not appear to have information about their authors. They do not directly state their credentials and looking for credentials elsewhere does not seem to get any results. However, they state that their approval certificates are recognized throughout the European community, and ECE.

44.  On the bottom of the page it states that the page was “last updated September 6^th 2018”, but I do not know whether this is for the page I was looking at or the site as a whole. I would consider this recent enough to use as a source, as they state on the page that since September 2015 is the latest update to European car pollution standards.

55.  I do not know if the page contains accurate information, I would assume so, but because they do not use citations or footnotes I cannot say that the page is necessarily accurate without doing outside research.

66.  I cannot identify any biases, or that they are trying to sell anything on this particular page, however the site itself is most likely trying to persuade you to use their services.

Part 3-1.

11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T

22.  The article appears to be well-structured, and not missing anything important. They could have included more details, such as the absence of seatbelts, but for the most part all the important details of the model are there.

33.  I do not see any warning messages at the top of the article.

44.  Facts are generally cited throughout the article, there are a few exceptions however. Notably, the suspension and wheels section does not cite any sources.

55.  The article is written well, and readable.

66.  I think the amount of sources match to the information presented in the article. The types of sources are mostly historical, with exceptions of sources being forums, or online articles. There are external links/further reading sources.

Part 3-2.

11.  This article belongs to WikiProjects: Engineering, Technology, Automobile, Industrial Design, Brands, Michigan/Detroit.

22.  It has been given B-class ratings across the board.

33.  I would agree with the B-class rating given the general use of citations, but with exceptions, and use of not necessarily reliable sources.

44.  Nothing causes concern on the talk page, but the black color post is interesting, talking about the myths of why the Ford Model T was painted black etc.

Part 3-3.

15. There are two somewhat recent history edits talking about vandalism to the page, however they have been blocked so I am not too concerned about if the page is inaccurate due to vandalism.

Part 4.

This week I learned how to use other search engines, for example Carrot2. Carrot2 is actually a very useful search engine that compartmentalizes results based on types. I also learned how to more efficiently and accurately browse Wikipedia articles for accuracy, and background info on subjects.