Gender Bias in the Perception of Physicians

Women are often penalized when they do not project traditional, socially defined femininity (e.g., gentleness, nurture, sensitivity, lack of competitiveness, lack of drive for achievement) and instead project traditional masculinity (e.g., ambitiousness, assertiveness, self-sufficiency, authority; Heilman & Chen, 2005; Prentice & Carranza, 2002). A common arena for gender bias and penalization is in the professional workplace where women in high status positions must usually exhibit various masculine-stereotyped characteristics. Judgment disparity is evident in business and corporate marketplaces (Flynn & Anderson, 2003) as well as in the health professions where patients scrutinized female physicians more harshly than male physicians (Cousin, Mast, & Juanin-Stalder, 2013). Research has yet to examine whether people project gender bias towards a physician based only on a biography

The Effects of Being the Target of Envy on Satisfaction with Success

Envy has been defined as wanting something that someone else has, which is distinct from jealousy, because jealousy is emotion fueled by an evolutionary need to protect one’s mate (Parrot & Smith, 1993) . Benign and malicious envy are distinct in how they motivate us. Benign envy motivates us to perform as well as the target of envy, whereas malicious envy motivates us to sabotage the performance of the target of envy (Lange & Crusius, 2015). Benign envy is exhibited through feelings of motivation whereas malicious envy is exhibited through feelings of anger (van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2011; van de Ven et al., 2015)

Do Gender Differences in Perceived Prototypical Computer Scientists and Engineers Contribute to Gender Gaps in Computer Science and Engineering?

Women are vastly underrepresented in the fields of computer science and engineering (CS&E). We examined whether women might view the intellectual characteristics of prototypical individuals in CS&E in more stereotype-consistent ways than men might and, consequently, show less interest in CS&E. We asked 269 U.S. college students (187, 69.5% women) to describe the prototypical computer scientist (Study 1) or engineer (Study 2) through open-ended descriptions as well as through a set of trait ratings. Participants also rated themselves on the same set of traits and rated their similarity to the prototype. Finally, participants in both studies were asked to describe their likelihood of pursuing future college courses and careers in computer science (Study 1) or engineering (Study 2). Across both studies, we found that women offered more stereotype-consistent ratings than did men of the intellectual characteristics of prototypes in CS (Study 1) and engineering (Study 2). Women also perceived themselves as less similar to the prototype than men did. Further, the observed gender differences in prototype perceptions mediated the tendency for women to report lower interest in CS&E fields relative to men. Our work highlights the importance of prototype perceptions for understanding the gender gap in CS&E and suggests avenues for interventions that may increase women’s representation in these vital fields

Quarantine Mothering and Working at Home: How Institutions of Higher Education Supported (or Failed to Support) Academic Mothers

This mixed methods study explores whether and how explicit policies, implicit practices, and internal communication from university administrators about aca-demic mothers’ work lives and expectations were impacted by the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine protocols. As this was a large study focussing on university policies addressing the presence of children on campus and the ways in which their enforcement or nonenforcement affected the personal and professional lives of faculty, we used purposive sampling (Palys) and snowball sampling (Patton) to distribute a survey in academic social media groups and to professional organization listservs (Palys). Among other things, the survey asked participants to report how well they thought their university was handling the COVID-19 pandemic and invited them to participate in an in-depth interview. As a result of the survey responses, we subsequently interviewed nineteen academic mothers from a range of academic disciplines, ages, and types of institutions, until we reached theoretical saturation (Strauss and Corbin). The semi-structured interview protocol included questions about the impact of COVID-19-related policies, practices, and messaging regarding children on participants’ job satisfaction, mental and physical health, as well as work-life balance. We used open and axial coding (Strauss and Corbin) and the constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss) to analyze the data. We then triangulated the data by comparing interview and survey findings, engaging multiple researchers in the analysis, and conducting peer debriefings (Denzin and Lincoln; Lincoln and Guba). Findings highlight institutional policies and practices that serve or fail to serve faculty in terms of supporting their professional advancement in teaching, research, and service

Di-μ-oxido-bis­[(1,4,8,11-tetra­aza­cyclo­tetra­decane-κ4 N,N′,N′′,N′′′)dimangan­ese(III,IV)] bis­(tetra­phenyl­borate) chloride acetonitrile disolvate

The title compound, [Mn2O2(C10H24N4)2](C24H20B)2Cl·2CH3CN, is a mixed-valent MnIII/MnIV oxide-bridged mangan­ese dimer with one chloride and two tetra­phenyl­borate counter-anions. There are two non-coordinated mol­ecules of acetonitrile in the formula unit. A center of inversion is present between the two metal atoms, and, consequently, there is no distinction between MnIII and MnIV metal centers. In the Mn2O2 core, the Mn—O distances are 1.817 (3) and 1.821 (3) Å. The cyclam ligand is in the cis configuration. The chloride counter-anion resides on a center of symmetry, whereas the tetra­phenyl­borate counter-anion is in a general position. The cyclam ligand is hydrogen bonded to the acetonitrile as well as to the chloride anion. One of the phenyl rings of the anion and the acetonitrile solvent molecule are each disordered over two sets of sites

Four sub-Saturns with dissimilar densities: windows into planetary cores and envelopes

We present results from a Keck/HIRES radial velocity campaign to study four sub-Saturn-sized planets, K2-27b, K2-32b, K2-39b, and K2-108b, with the goal of understanding their masses, orbits, and heavy-element enrichment. The planets have similar sizes (RP=4.5-5.5 ), but have dissimilar masses (MP=16-60 ), implying a diversity in their core and envelope masses. K2-32b is the least massive (MP = 16.5 ± 2.7 M) and orbits in close proximity to two sub-Neptunes near a 3:2:1 period commensurability. K2-27b and K2-39b are significantly more massive at MP = 30.9 ± 4.6 M and MP = 39.8 ± 4.4 M, respectively, and show no signs of additional planets. K2-108b is the most massive at MP = 59.4 ± 4.4 M, implying a large reservoir of heavy elements of about ≈50 . Sub-Saturns as a population have a large diversity in planet mass at a given size. They exhibit remarkably little correlation between mass and size; sub-Saturns range from ≈6-60 M, regardless of size. We find a strong correlation between planet mass and host star metallicity, suggesting that metal-rich disks form more massive planet cores. The most massive sub-Saturns tend to lack detected companions and have moderately eccentric orbits, perhaps as a result of a previous epoch of dynamical instability. Finally, we observe only a weak correlation between the planet envelope fraction and present-day equilibrium temperature, suggesting that photo-evaporation does not play a dominant role in determining the amount of gas sub-Saturns accrete from their protoplanetary disks

Characterization of subsurface media from locations up- and down-gradient of a uranium-contaminated aquifer.

The processing of sediment to accurately characterize the spatially-resolved depth profiles of geophysical and geochemical properties along with signatures of microbial density and activity remains a challenge especially in complex contaminated areas. This study processed cores from two sediment boreholes from background and contaminated core sediments and surrounding groundwater. Fresh core sediments were compared by depth to capture the changes in sediment structure, sediment minerals, biomass, and pore water geochemistry in terms of major and trace elements including pollutants, cations, anions, and organic acids. Soil porewater samples were matched to groundwater level, flow rate, and preferential flows and compared to homogenized groundwater-only samples from neighboring monitoring wells. Groundwater analysis of nearby wells only revealed high sulfate and nitrate concentrations while the same analysis using sediment pore water samples with depth was able to suggest areas high in sulfate- and nitrate-reducing bacteria based on their decreased concentration and production of reduced by-products that could not be seen in the groundwater samples. Positive correlations among porewater content, total organic carbon, trace metals and clay minerals revealed a more complicated relationship among contaminant, sediment texture, groundwater table, and biomass. The fluctuating capillary interface had high concentrations of Fe and Mn-oxides combined with trace elements including U, Th, Sr, Ba, Cu, and Co. This suggests the mobility of potentially hazardous elements, sediment structure, and biogeochemical factors are all linked together to impact microbial communities, emphasizing that solid interfaces play an important role in determining the abundance of bacteria in the sediments

Navigating to new frontiers in behavioral neuroscience: traditional neuropsychological tests predict human performance on a rodent-inspired radial-arm maze

We constructed an 11-arm, walk-through, human radial-arm maze (HRAM) as a translational instrument to compare existing methodology in the areas of rodent and human learning and memory research. The HRAM, utilized here, serves as an intermediary test between the classic rat radial-arm maze (RAM) and standard human neuropsychological and cognitive tests. We show that the HRAM is a useful instrument to examine working memory ability, explore the relationships between rodent and human memory and cognition models, and evaluate factors that contribute to human navigational ability. One-hundred-and-fifty-seven participants were tested on the HRAM, and scores were compared to performance on a standard cognitive battery focused on episodic memory, working memory capacity, and visuospatial ability. We found that errors on the HRAM increased as working memory demand became elevated, similar to the pattern typically seen in rodents, and that for this task, performance appears similar to Miller's classic description of a processing-inclusive human working memory capacity of 7 ± 2 items. Regression analysis revealed that measures of working memory capacity and visuospatial ability accounted for a large proportion of variance in HRAM scores, while measures of episodic memory and general intelligence did not serve as significant predictors of HRAM performance. We present the HRAM as a novel instrument for measuring navigational behavior in humans, as is traditionally done in basic science studies evaluating rodent learning and memory, thus providing a useful tool to help connect and translate between human and rodent models of cognitive functioning