Black Women Community College Professors’ Perceptions of Relational Mentoring and Achieving Tenure

This interpretative phenomenological study used theoretical and conceptual frameworks based on critical race theory and relational cultural theory. The purpose was to analyze and understand the perceptions of seven tenured Black women community college professors regarding relational mentoring, navigating barriers, and achieving tenure at a large public university system in the northeastern United States. The underrepresentation of Black women faculty members can be attributed to factors that affect the tenure process, including: gendered racism, social isolation, unreceptive and alienating campus climates, lack of access to research opportunities, discredited scholarly research, increased teaching and service committee assignments, and lack of mentoring. Based on the findings of this study, mentoring and networking programs can help to address and eliminate barriers, and provide support and access to Black women community college faculty members, as well as contribute to the recruitment and retention of minority faculty members. For institutional leaders, this research offers insight into the plight of Black women community college professors as they navigate a tenure process that represents institutional and organizational norms that are entrenched in systemic racism and sexism

Phototropins do not alter accumulation of evening-phased circadian transcripts under blue light.

The circadian system induces rhythmic variation in a suite of biochemical and physiological processes that serves to optimise plant growth in diel cycles. To be of greatest utility, these rhythmic behaviours are coordinated with regular environmental changes such as the rising and setting of the sun. Photoreceptors, and metabolites produced during photosynthesis, act to synchronise the internal timing mechanism with lighting cues. We have recently shown that phototropins help maintain robust rhythms of photosynthetic operating efficiency (?PSII or Fq'/Fm') under blue light, although rhythmic accumulation of morning-phased circadian transcripts in the nucleus was unaffected. Here we report that evening-phased nuclear clock transcripts were also unaffected. We also observe that rhythms of nuclear clock transcript accumulation are maintained in phototropin mutant plants under a fluctuating lighting regime that induced a loss of Fq'/Fm' rhythms

An interactive, generative Punch and Judy show using institutions, ASP and emotional agents

Using Punch and Judy as a story domain, we describe an interactive puppet show, where the flow and content of the story can be influenced by the actions of the audience. As the puppet show is acted out, the audience reacts to events by cheering or booing the characters. This affects the agents’ emotional state, potentially causing them to change their actions, altering the course of the narrative. An institutional normative model is used to constrain the narrative so that it remains consistent with the Punch and Judy canon. Through this vignette of a socio-technical system (STS), comprising human and software actors, an institutional model – derived from narrative theory – and (simplistic) technological interaction artifacts, we begin to be able to explore some of the issues that can arise in STS through the prism of the World-Institution-Technology (WIT) model

Epitaxial Growth of La1/3_{1/3}Sr2/3_{2/3}FeO3_3 thin films by laser ablation

We report on the synthesis of high quality La$_{1/3}$Sr$_{2/3}$FeO$_3$ (LSFO) thin films using the pulsed laser deposition technique on both SrTiO$_3$ (STO) and LaAlO$_3$ (LAO) substrates (100)-oriented. From X-Ray diffraction (XRD) studies, we find that the films have an out-of-plane lattice parameter around 0.3865nm, almost independent of the substrate (i.e. the nature of the strains). The transport properties reveal that, while LSFO films deposited on STO exhibit an anomaly in the resistivity vs temperature at 180K (corresponding to the charge-ordered transition and associated with a transition from a paramagnetic to an antiferromagnetic state), the films grown on LAO display a very small magnetoresistance behavior and present an hysteresis around 270K under the application of a 4T magnetic field. The changes in transport properties between both substrates are discussed and compared with the corresponding single crystals.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Irreducible Hamiltonian approach to the Freedman-Townsend model

The irreducible BRST symmetry for the Freedman-Townsend model is derived. The comparison with the standard reducible approach is also addressed.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX 2.0

Superconducting properties of RuSr2GdCu2O8 studied by SQUID magnetometry

For polycrystalline RuSr2GdCu2O8 (Ru-1212), distinct peaks have been reported in d.c. magnetization in the superconducting state of the sample. Sr2GdRuO6 (Sr-2116), the precursor for the preparation of Ru-1212, shows similar peaks in the same temperature regime. Based on measurements performed on both bulk and powdered samples of Ru-1212 and Sr-2116, we exclude the possibility, that the observed behavior of the magnetization of Ru-1212 is due to Sr-2116 impurities. The effect is related to the superconductivity of Ru-1212, but it is not an intrinsic property of this compound. We provide evidence that the observation of magnetization peaks in the superconducting state of Ru-1212 is due to flux motion generated by the movement of the sample in an inhomogeneous field, during the measurement in the SQUID magnetometer. We propose several tests, that help to decide, whether the features observed in a SQUID magnetization measurement of Ru-1212 represent a property of the compound or not.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure

Treatment-seeking rates in malaria endemic countries

BACKGROUND: The proportion of individuals who seek treatment for fever is an important quantity in understanding access to and use of health systems, as well as for interpreting data on disease incidence from routine surveillance systems. For many malaria endemic countries (MECs), treatment-seeking information is available from national household surveys. The aim of this paper was to assemble sub-national estimates of treatment-seeking behaviours and to predict national treatment-seeking measures for all MECs lacking household survey data. METHODS: Data on treatment seeking for fever were obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys, Malaria Indicator Surveys and Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys for every MEC and year that data were available. National-level social, economic and health-related variables were gathered from the World Bank as putative covariates of treatment-seeking rates. A generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) was used to estimate treatment-seeking behaviours for countries where survey data were unavailable. Two separate models were developed to predict the proportion of fever cases that would seek treatment at (1) a public health facility or (2) from any kind of treatment provider. RESULTS: Treatment-seeking data were available for 74 MECs and modelled for the remaining 24. GAMMs found that the percentage of pregnant women receiving prenatal care, vaccination rates, education level, government health expenditure, and GDP growth were important predictors for both categories of treatment-seeking outcomes. Treatment-seeking rates, which varied both within and among regions, revealed that public facilities were not always the primary facility type used. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of treatment-seeking rates show how health services are utilized and help correct reported malaria case numbers to obtain more accurate measures of disease burden. The assembled and modelled data demonstrated that while treatment-seeking rates have overall increased over time, access remains low in some malaria endemic regions and utilization of government services is in some areas limited

Orbital Structure and Magnetic Ordering in Layered Manganites: Universal Correlation and Its Mechanism

Correlation between orbital structure and magnetic ordering in bilayered manganites is examined. A level separation between the $3d_{3z^2-r^2}$ and $3d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals in a Mn ion is calculated in the ionic model for a large number of the compounds. It is found that the relative stability of the orbitals dominates the magnetic transition temperatures as well as the magnetic structures. A mechanism of the correlation between orbital and magnetism is investigated based on the theoretical model with the two $e_g$ orbitals under strong electron correlation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Evaluations of in-traffic performance of high-intensity discharge headlamps

This study evaluated subjects' impressions of performance of high-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps after in-traffic experience, with an emphasis on colour appearance of red stop signs. In the first of two tasks, subjects drove (or rode) for half an hour on a variety of roads in a car equipped with either HID or tungsten-halogen low-beam headlamps. Instructions did not mention colour appearance. The second task involved a direct comparison of HID and tungsten-halogen headlamps. In this task, subjects drove (or rode) twice along a 7-minute route in a residential area, and they were instructed to pay attention to the colour appearance of stop signs and other objects. The main finding from Task 1 is that subjects who experienced HID headlamps did not report more (or fewer) spontaneous negative comments on colour appearance of stop signs or other objects than did subjects who experienced tungsten-halogen headlamps. Furthermore, the evaluations of the overall performances of the two types of headlamps were not different. In the direct comparison of Task 2 there was no evidence of problems with colour appearance when using HID headlamps. Moreover, subjects preferred HID headlamps in terms of the overall performance, and in making stop signs and other objects stand out from their background. However, this preference for HID headlamps was present only for subjects who had the relatively extended exposure to the HID headlamps in Task 1. The present results provide no evidence for problems with colour appearance of stop signs and other objects when using HID headlamps. Furthermore, the study provides evidence that observers perceive HID headlamps as helping stop signs and other objects to stand out from their background. The results imply that given a somewhat extended exposure to HID headlamps, drivers would prefer them over current tungsten-halogen headlamps.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68417/2/10.1177_096032719402600402.pd

Adult Education Amidst Dual Pandemics: Community College Survival

This article examines how adult educators at an urban community college, cope with and persist in the face of dual pandemics: COVID-19 and systemic racism. It delves into the requirements they faced turning in-person instruction to distance learning platforms at a moment’s notice, how they dealt with claims of racial disparity in doing so, and how the resurgence of racial unrest across the country challenged not only their own values and beliefs but how these events impacted their ability to teach and interact with their diverse students. The article also examines the instructors\u27 ability to maintain their own wellbeing amidst these major atrocities and provide recommendations intended to help educators (and institutions) simultaneously maintain their mental, physical, and emotional health and continue to educate adult learners in ways that dismantle the inequities borne of systemic racism