Cultivating cultural capitals in introductory algebra-based physics through reflective journaling

At a large, diverse, hispanic-serving, master’s-granting university, the Alma Project was created to support the rich connections of life experiences of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students that come from racially diverse backgrounds through reflective journaling. Utilizing frameworks in ethnic studies and social psychology, the Alma Project aims to make learning STEM inclusive by affirming the intersectional identities and cultural wealth that students bring into STEM classrooms. Approximately once per month students who participate in the Alma Project spend 5–10 min at the beginning of class responding to questions designed to affirm their values and purpose for studying STEM in college. Students then spend time in class sharing their responses with their peers, to the extent that they feel comfortable, including common struggles and successes in navigating through college and STEM spaces. For this study, we analyze 180 reflective journaling essays of students enrolled in General Physics I, an algebra-based introductory physics course primarily for life science majors. Students were enrolled in a required lab, a self-selected community-based learning program (Supplemental Instruction), or in a small number of instances, both. Using the community cultural wealth framework to anchor our analysis, we identified 11 cultural capitals that students often expressed within these physics spaces. Students in both populations frequently expressed aspirational, attainment, and navigational capital, while expressions of other cultural capitals, such as social capital, differ in the two populations. Our findings suggest that students bring rich and diverse perspectives into physics classrooms when asked to reflect about their lived experiences. Moreover, our study provides evidence that reflective journaling can be used as an asset-based teaching tool. By using reflective journaling in physics spaces, recognizing students’ assets has the potential for physics educators to leverage students’ lived experiences, goals, and values to make physics learning more meaningful and engaging

Investigation of the Proteolytic Functions of an Expanded Cercarial Elastase Gene Family in Schistosoma mansoni

Schistosome parasites are a major cause of disease in the developing world. The larval stage of the parasite transitions between an intermediate snail host and a definitive human host in a dramatic fashion, burrowing out of the snail and subsequently penetrating human skin. This process is facilitated by secreted proteases. In Schistosoma mansoni, cercarial elastase is the predominant secreted protease and essential for host skin invasion. Genomic analysis reveals a greatly expanded cercarial elastase gene family in S. mansoni. Despite sequence divergence, SmCE isoforms show similar expression profiles throughout the S. mansoni life cycle and have largely similar substrate specificities, suggesting that the majority of protease isoforms are functionally redundant and therefore their expansion is an example of gene dosage. However, activity-based profiling also indicates that a subset of SmCE isoforms are activated prior to the parasite's exit from its intermediate snail host, suggesting that the protease may also have a role in this process

[Mn(bpb)(DMAP)(NO)], an {Mn-NO} nitrosyl with Z' = 8.

The structure of the title compound octa-kis-{[4-(dimethyl-amino)-pyridine](nitros-yl)[N,N'-(o-phenyl-ene)bis-(pyridine-2-carboxamidato)]manganese(II)} ethanol hepta-solvate 3.5-hydrate, [Mn(C(18)H(12)N(4)O(2))(C(7)H(10)N(2))(NO)](8)·7C(2)H(5)OH·3.5H(2)O, or 8[Mn(bpb)(DMAP)(NO)]·7EtOH·3.5H(2)O, is an unusual example of a structure with Z' = 8. The tetra-dentate bpb ligand, together with the nitrosyl and dimethyl-amino-pyridine ligands, gives rise to a distorted octa-hedral coordination environment for the Mn(II) ion. The average Mn-N((N=O)) bond length is 1.631 (13) Å. The eight mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit differ mainly in the rotation of the DMAP pyridine plane with respect to a reference plane of the Mn and three N atoms, one of which is the N atom of the NO group. The dihedral angles between the normals to these planes range from a minimum of 28.0 (2)° to a maximum of 64.2 (2)°. There are also some differences in O-H⋯O hydrogen bonding inter-actions. For example, of the sixteen C=O acceptors, there are seven different inter-actions with EtOH donors and two inter-actions with H(2)O donors. The crystal studied was found to be a two-component twin, with a 179.9° rotation about the real axis [-0.535, 0.004, 1.000]. Due to the presence of a superlattice and, consequently, the large number of weak reflections, the refinement utilized rigid solvate groups and isotropic displacement parameters for all except the Mn atoms. H atoms were not located for hydrate molecules

[Mn(bpb)(DMAP)(NO)], an {Mn–NO}6 nitrosyl with Z′ = 8

The structure of the title compound octakis{[4-(dimethylamino)pyridine](nitrosyl)[N,N′-(o-phenylene)bis(pyridine-2-carboxamidato)]manganese(II)} ethanol heptasolvate 3.5-hydrate, [Mn(C18H12N4O2)(C7H10N2)(NO)]8·7C2H5OH·3.5H2O, or 8[Mn(bpb)(DMAP)(NO)]·7EtOH·3.5H2O, is an unusual example of a structure with Z′ = 8. The tetradentate bpb ligand, together with the nitrosyl and dimethylaminopyridine ligands, gives rise to a distorted octahedral coordination environment for the Mn(II) ion. The average Mn—N(N=O) bond length is 1.631 (13) Å. The eight molecules in the asymmetric unit differ mainly in the rotation of the DMAP pyridine plane with respect to a reference plane of the Mn and three N atoms, one of which is the N atom of the NO group. The dihedral angles between the normals to these planes range from a minimum of 28.0 (2)° to a maximum of 64.2 (2)°. There are also some differences in O—H...O hydrogen bonding interactions. For example, of the sixteen C=O acceptors, there are seven different interactions with EtOH donors and two interactions with H2O donors. The crystal studied was found to be a two-component twin, with a 179.9° rotation about the real axis [−0.535, 0.004, 1.000]. Due to the presence of a superlattice and, consequently, the large number of weak reflections, the refinement utilized rigid solvate groups and isotropic displacement parameters for all except the Mn atoms. H atoms were not located for hydrate molecules

The Influence of Microaffirmations on Undergraduate Persistence in Science Career Pathways

The present studies aimed to advance the measurement and understanding of microaffirmation kindness cues and assessed how they related to historically underrepresented (HU) and historically overrepresented (HO) undergraduate student persistence in science-related career pathways. Study 1 developed and tested the dimensionality of a new Microaffirmations Scale. Study 2 confirmed the two-factor structure of the Microaffirmations Scale and demonstrated that the scale possessed measurement invariance across HU and HO students. Further, the scale was administered as part of a longitudinal design spanning 9 months, with results showing that students' reported microaffirmations did not directly predict higher intentions to persist in science-related career pathways 9 months later. However, scientific self-efficacy and identity, measures of student integration into the science community, mediated this relationship. Overall, our results demonstrated that microaffirmations can be measured in an academic context and that these experiences have predictive value when they increase students' integration into their science communities, ultimately resulting in greater intentions to persist 9 months later. Researchers and practitioners can use the Microaffirmations Scale for future investigations to increase understanding of the positive contextual factors that can ultimately help reduce persistence gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics degree attainment

Enabling full representation in science: the San Francisco BUILD project’s agents of change affirm science skills, belonging and community

Abstract Background The underrepresentation of minority students in the sciences constrains innovation and productivity in the U.S. The SF BUILD project mission is to remove barriers to diversity by taking a “fix the institution” approach rather than a “fix the student” one. SF BUILD is transforming education, research, training, and mentoring at San Francisco State University, a premiere public university that primarily serves undergraduates and ethnic minority students. It boasts a large number of faculty members from underrepresented groups (URGs), including many of the project leaders. These leaders collaborate with faculty at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), a world-class medical research institution, to implement SF BUILD. Key highlights Together, the campus partners are committed to creating intellectually safe and affirming environments grounded in the Signaling Affirmation for Equity (SAFE) model, which is based on robust psychosocial evidence on stereotype threat and its consequences. The SAFE model dictates a multilevel approach to increasing intent to pursue a biomedical career, persistence in STEM fields, and productivity (e.g. publications, presentations, and grants) by implementing transformative activities at the institutional, faculty, and student levels. These activities (1) increase knowledge of the stereotype threat phenomenon; (2) affirm communal and altruistic goals of students and faculty to “give back” to their communities in classrooms and research activities; and (3) establish communities of students, faculty and administrators as “agents of change.” Agents of change are persons committed to establishing and maintaining SAFE environments. In this way, SF BUILD advances the national capacity to address biomedical questions relevant to communities of color by enabling full representation in science. Implications This chapter describes the theoretical and historical context that drive the activities, research and evaluation of the SF BUILD project, and highlights attributes that other institutions can use for institutional change. While this paper is grounded in psychosocial theory, it also provides practical solutions for broadening participation

Profiling of the P₁–P₄ substrate specificity of liver fluke cathepsin Ls using PS-SCL libraries.

<p>The activity against the substrates is represented relative to the highest activity of the library with each enzyme (namely Leu and Pro at P2 for FheCL1 and FheCL3, respectively, n = norleucine). The error bars display the standard deviation from triplicate experiments.</p