Review Of Gender Differences In Learning Styles: Suggestions For STEM Education

Women have made great strides in baccalaureate degree obtainment, out numbering men by over 230,000 conferred baccalaureate degrees in 2008. However, the proportion of earned degrees for women in some of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses continues to lag behind male baccalaureate completions (National Science Foundation, 2010). In addition, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), only 21% of information and computer science degrees were awarded to women in 2006 (NCWIT, 2007). In the past decade, higher education has experienced a rapid decline in the number of women involved in the information sciences, particularly computer science (Bank, 2007). A number of social and educational factors have been considered barriers to women entering STEM fields and this area has been well studied in the literature. However, research examining the relationship between gender differences and learning styles in the context of these technical fields is limited. According to Kolb (1976), people decide on a major based on how well the norms of the major fit with their individual learning styles. This paper presents gender differences in learning styles and recommends teaching methodologies most preferred for female learners in STEM courses. Further, a survey was administered to ascertain the extent the results of this study support previous findings

Animal-to-animal variability in the phasing of the crustacean cardiac motor pattern: An experimental and computational analysis

The cardiac ganglion (CG) of Homarus americanus is a central pattern generator that consists of two oscillatory groups of neurons: small cells (SCs) and large cells (LCs). We have shown that SCs and LCs begin their bursts nearly simultaneously but end their bursts at variable phases. This variability contrasts with many other central pattern generator systems in which phase is well maintained. To determine both the consequences of this variability and how CG phasing is controlled, we modeled the CG as a pair of Morris-Lecar oscillators coupled by electrical and excitatory synapses and constructed a database of 15,000 simulated networks using random parameter sets. These simulations, like our experimental results, displayed variable phase relationships, with the bursts beginning together but ending at variable phases. The model suggests that the variable phasing of the pattern has important implications for the functional role of the excitatory synapses. In networks in which the two oscillators had similar duty cycles, the excitatory coupling functioned to increase cycle frequency. In networks with disparate duty cycles, it functioned to decrease network frequency. Overall, we suggest that the phasing of the CG may vary without compromising appropriate motor output and that this variability may critically determine how the network behaves in response to manipulations. © 2013 the American Physiological Society

State of Stress in the Conterminous United States

Inferring principal stress directions from geologic data, focal mechanisms, and in situ stress measurements, we have prepared a map of principal horizontal stress orientations for the conterminous United States. Stress provinces with linear dimensions which range between 100 and 2000 km were defined on the basis of the directions and relative magnitude of principal stresses. Within a given province, stress orientations appear quite uniform (usually within the estimated range of accuracy of the different methods used to determine stress). Available data on the transition in stress direction between the different stress provinces indicate that these transitions can be abrupt, occurring over \u3c 75 km in places. In the western United States, a region of active tectonism characterized by high levels of seismicity and generally high heat flow, the stress pattern is complex, but numerous stress provinces can be well delineated. Despite relative tectonic quiescence in the eastern and central United States, a major variation in principal stress orientation is apparent between the Atlantic Coast and midcontinent areas. Most of the eastern United States is marked by predominantly compressional tectonism (combined thrust and strike slip faulting), whereas much of the region west of the southern Great Plains is characterized by predominantly extensional tectonism (combined normal and strike slip faulting). Deformation along the San Andreas fault and in parts of the Sierra Nevada is nearly pure strike slip. Exceptions to this general pattern include areas of compressional tectonics in the western United States (the Pacific Northwest, the Colorado Plateau interior, and the Big Bend segment of the San Andreas fault) and the normal growth faulting along the Gulf Coastal Plain. Sources of stress are constrained not only by the orientation and relative magnitude of the stresses within a given province but also by the manner of transition of the stress field from one province to another. Much of the modem pattern of stress in the western United States can be attributed to present transform motion and residual thermal and dynamic effects of Tertiary subduction along the western edge of the North American plate. Abrupt stress transitions around actively extending regions in the western United States probably reflects hallow sources of stress and anomalously thin lithosphere. Large areas characterized by a uniform stress field in the central and eastern United States suggests broad scale plate tectonic forces. In the midcontinent region, both ridge push and asthenospheric viscous drag resistance to lithospheric motion can explain the NE-SW compression in the cold, thick lithosphere of the craton, although drag-induced stress directions (resistance to absolute plate motion) correlate better with the data than do the ridge push direction. Assthenospheric counter-flow models do not apply in this region, as predicted stress orientations are about 90 ° off. A region of compression orientead approximately perpendicular to the continental margin and Appalachian fold belt is defined by the stress data along the Atlantic Coast. This NW-SE compression is in direct contrast with previous models predicting extension perpendicular to passive continental margins due to lateral density contrasts at the continental-oceanic crust interface. Ridge push forces, while capable of producing a component of compression across the coastal area, do not explain the observed orientation of the stress. Two speculative mechanisms are suggestted to explain the observed orientations (1) rotation of stress (or strain) due to anisotropic Appalachian basement structure and (2) flexural effect asssociated with erosion and isostatic rebound of the Appalachians

Extending chemical perturbations of the ubiquitin fitness landscape in a classroom setting reveals new constraints on sequence tolerance.

Although the primary protein sequence of ubiquitin (Ub) is extremely stable over evolutionary time, it is highly tolerant to mutation during selection experiments performed in the laboratory. We have proposed that this discrepancy results from the difference between fitness under laboratory culture conditions and the selective pressures in changing environments over evolutionary timescales. Building on our previous work (Mavor et al., 2016), we used deep mutational scanning to determine how twelve new chemicals (3-Amino-1,2,4-triazole, 5-fluorocytosine, Amphotericin B, CaCl2, Cerulenin, Cobalt Acetate, Menadione, Nickel Chloride, p-Fluorophenylalanine, Rapamycin, Tamoxifen, and Tunicamycin) reveal novel mutational sensitivities of ubiquitin residues. Collectively, our experiments have identified eight new sensitizing conditions for Lys63 and uncovered a sensitizing condition for every position in Ub except Ser57 and Gln62. By determining the ubiquitin fitness landscape under different chemical constraints, our work helps to resolve the inconsistencies between deep mutational scanning experiments and sequence conservation over evolutionary timescales

Extending chemical perturbations of the ubiquitin fitness landscape in a classroom setting reveals new constraints on sequence tolerance

Although the primary protein sequence of ubiquitin (Ub) is extremely stable over evolutionary time, it is highly tolerant to mutation during selection experiments performed in the laboratory. We have proposed that this discrepancy results from the difference between fitness under laboratory culture conditions and the selective pressures in changing environments over evolutionary timescales. Building on our previous work (Mavor et al., 2016), we used deep mutational scanning to determine how twelve new chemicals (3-Amino-1,2,4-triazole, 5-fluorocytosine, Amphotericin B, CaCl2, Cerulenin, Cobalt Acetate, Menadione, Nickel Chloride, p-Fluorophenylalanine, Rapamycin, Tamoxifen, and Tunicamycin) reveal novel mutational sensitivities of ubiquitin residues. Collectively, our experiments have identified eight new sensitizing conditions for Lys63 and uncovered a sensitizing condition for every position in Ub except Ser57 and Gln62. By determining the ubiquitin fitness landscape under different chemical constraints, our work helps to resolve the inconsistencies between deep mutational scanning experiments and sequence conservation over evolutionary timescales

Extending chemical perturbations of the ubiquitin fitness landscape in a classroom setting reveals new constraints on sequence tolerance.

Although the primary protein sequence of ubiquitin (Ub) is extremely stable over evolutionary time, it is highly tolerant to mutation during selection experiments performed in the laboratory. We have proposed that this discrepancy results from the difference between fitness under laboratory culture conditions and the selective pressures in changing environments over evolutionary timescales. Building on our previous work (Mavor et al., 2016), we used deep mutational scanning to determine how twelve new chemicals (3-Amino-1,2,4-triazole, 5-fluorocytosine, Amphotericin B, CaCl2, Cerulenin, Cobalt Acetate, Menadione, Nickel Chloride, p-Fluorophenylalanine, Rapamycin, Tamoxifen, and Tunicamycin) reveal novel mutational sensitivities of ubiquitin residues. Collectively, our experiments have identified eight new sensitizing conditions for Lys63 and uncovered a sensitizing condition for every position in Ub except Ser57 and Gln62. By determining the ubiquitin fitness landscape under different chemical constraints, our work helps to resolve the inconsistencies between deep mutational scanning experiments and sequence conservation over evolutionary timescales