Gender in Engineering Departments: Are There Gender Differences in Interruptions of Academic Job Talks?

We use a case study of job talks in five engineering departments to analyze the under-studied area of gendered barriers to finalists for faculty positions. We focus on one segment of the interview day of short-listed candidates invited to campus: the “job talk”, when candidates present their original research to the academic department. We analyze video recordings of 119 job talks across five engineering departments at two Research 1 universities. Specifically, we analyze whether there are differences by gender or by years of post-Ph.D. experience in the number of interruptions, follow-up questions, and total questions that job candidates receive. We find that, compared to men, women receive more follow-up questions and more total questions. Moreover, a higher proportion of women’s talk time is taken up by the audience asking questions. Further, the number of questions is correlated with the job candidate’s statements and actions that reveal he or she is rushing to present their slides and complete the talk. We argue that women candidates face more interruptions and often have less time to bring their talk to a compelling conclusion, which is connected to the phenomenon of “stricter standards” of competence demanded by evaluators of short-listed women applying for a masculine-typed job. We conclude with policy recommendations

Hyperglycaemia induces metabolic dysfunction and glycogen accumulation in pancreatic β-cells

Insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells is impaired in all forms of diabetes. The resultant hyperglycaemia has deleterious effects on many tissues, including β-cells. Here we use a mouse model of human neonatal diabetes to show that chronic hyperglycemia impairs glucose metabolism and alters expression of metabolic genes in pancreatic islets. This results in marked glycogen accumulation, and increased apoptosis in β-cells. Sulphonylurea therapy rapidly normalizes blood glucose levels, dissipates glycogen stores, increases autophagy, and restores β-cell metabolism. Insulin therapy has the same effect but with slower kinetics. Similar changes are observed in mice expressing an activating glucokinase mutation, in in vitro models of hyperglycaemia, and in islets from type-2 diabetes patients. Altered β-cell metabolism may underlie both the progressive impairment of insulin secretion and reduced β-cell mass in diabetes

places and non places

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploring female mice interstrain differences relevant for models of depression

Depression is an extremely heterogeneous disorder. Diverse molecular mechanisms have been suggested to underlie its etiology. To understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for this complex disorder, researchers have been using animal models extensively, namely mice from various genetic backgrounds and harboring distinct genetic modifications. The use of numerous mouse models has contributed to enrich our knowledge on depression. However, accumulating data also revealed that the intrinsic characteristics of each mouse strain might influence the experimental outcomes, which may justify some conflicting evidence reported in the literature. To further understand the impact of the genetic background, we performed a multimodal comparative study encompassing the most relevant parameters commonly addressed in depression, in three of the most widely used mouse strains: Balb/c, C57BL/6, and CD-1. Moreover, female mice were selected for this study taken into account the higher prevalence of depression in women and the fewer animal studies using this gender. Our results show that Balb/c mice have a more pronounced anxious-like behavior than CD-1 and C57BL/6 mice, whereas C57BL/6 animals present the strongest depressive-like trait. Furthermore, C57BL/6 mice display the highest rate of proliferating cells and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) expression levels in the hippocampus, while hippocampal dentate granular neurons of Balb/c mice show smaller dendritic lengths and fewer ramifications. Of notice, the expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNos) predict 39.5% of the depressive-like behavior index, which suggests a key role of hippocampal iNOS in depression. Overall, this study reveals important interstrain differences in several behavioral dimensions and molecular and cellular parameters that should be considered when preparing and analyzing experiments addressing depression using mouse models. It further contributes to the literature by revealing the predictive value of hippocampal iNos expression levels in depressive-like behavior, irrespectively of the mouse strain.This work was funded by the Portuguese North Regional Operational Program (ON.2-O Novo Norte) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN), through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The funders had no involvement into the analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript or the decision to submit the article for publication

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file

Decadal-scale litter manipulation alters the biochemical and physical character of tropical forest soil carbon

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Climate change and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are likely to alter tropical forest net primary productivity (NPP), potentially affecting soil C storage. We examined biochemical and physical changes in soil C fractions in a humid tropical forest where experimental litter manipulation changed total soil C stocks. We hypothesized that: (1.) low-density soil organic C (SOC) fractions are more responsive to altered litter inputs than mineral-associated SOC, because they cycle relatively rapidly. (2.) Any accumulation of mineral-associated SOC with litter addition is relatively stable (i.e. low leaching potential). (3.) Certain biomolecules, such as waxes (alkyl) and proteins (N-alkyl), form more stable mineral-associations than other biomolecules in strongly weathered soils. A decade of litter addition and removal affected bulk soil C content in the upper 5 cm by +32% and −31%, respectively. Most notably, C concentration in the mineral-associated SOC fraction was greater in litter addition plots relative to controls by 18% and 28% in the dry and wet seasons, respectively, accounting for the majority of greater bulk soil C stock. Radiocarbon and leaching analyses demonstrated that the greater mineral-associated SOC in litter addition plots consisted of new and relatively stable C, with only 3% of mineral-associated SOC leachable in salt solution. Solid-state13C NMR spectroscopy indicated that waxes (alkyl C) and microbial biomass compounds (O-alkyl and N-alkyl C) in mineral-associated SOC are relatively stable, whereas plant-derived compounds (aromatic and phenolic C) are lost from mineral associations on decadal timescales. We conclude that changes in tropical forest NPP will alter the quantity, biochemistry, and stability of C stored in strongly weathered tropical soils