Postsecondary education gender disparities among Inuit in Alaska: A symptom of male malaise?

En Alaska, les femmes inuit sont de loin plus nombreuses dans l’enseignement postsecondaire que les hommes. Chez les Inupiat de l’Alaska, seulement 28% des étudiants inscrits dans les programmes du baccalauréat à l’Université de l’Alaska sont des hommes, et la proportion d’hommes ayant obtenu un diplôme de baccalauréat a décliné entre 2000 et 2003. Parmi les Yupiit, 30% des étudiants inscrits au baccalauréat sont des hommes. De semblables disparités entre les sexes se constatent chez les lycéens suivant des programmes destinés à préparer académiquement les étudiants autochtones au collège. Ce phénomène peut s’interpréter soit comme un signe de «malaise masculin», de désengagement vis-à-vis de l’instruction scolaire et des emplois salariés auxquels la scolarité est une préparation, soit comme une adaptation fonctionnelle à un mode de vie alliant emploi salarié et subsistance traditionnelle où l’instruction, et en particulier la formation supérieure, paraît moins importante aux hommes qu’aux femmes inuit. Afin d’argumenter l’explication de ce «malaise masculin», nous comparons deux régions inuit de l’Alaska, la région des Inupiat au nord-ouest, où la Corporation autochtone régionale a mis l’accent sur la création d’emplois au niveau local par le biais de la Red Dog Mine, et la région des Yupiit au sud-ouest, qui offre peu d’emplois, en particulier en dehors du réseau régional de Bethel. Dans le nord-ouest de l’Alaska, 49% des jeunes hommes inuit ayant entre 22 et 29 ans se décrivent eux-mêmes, dans le recensement de l’an 2000, comme étant «sans emploi» ou bien «en dehors de la force de travail». Dans le sud-ouest de l’Alaska, 48% des jeunes hommes inuit disent la même chose. Ces schémas soutiennent l’explication de ce «malaise masculin». Cependant, les études communautaires, qui permettent des analyses domestiques fines de la participation des hommes et des femmes dans l’emploi salarié et l’économie de subsistance, s’avèrent nécessaires pour distinguer entre ces deux explications ou suggérer d’autres interprétations.Far more Inuit women in Alaska are pursuing postsecondary education compared to Inuit men. Among Inupiat in Alaska, only 28% of students pursuing baccalaureate degrees at the University of Alaska are male, and the proportion of males receiving baccalaureate degrees declined from 2000 to 2003. Among Yupiit, 30% of students pursuing baccalaureate degrees are male. Similar gender disparities occur in programs for high school students designed to prepare academically able Indigenous students for college. This phenomenon can be interpreted either as a sign of “male malaise,” of disengagement from education and the wage employment for which education is a preparation, or as a functional adaptation to a mixed wage and subsistence way of life where education and particularly higher education is less important to Inuit males than females. To examine support for the explanation of “male malaise,” we compare two Inuit regions of Alaska, the Inupiaq region of Northwest Alaska, where the regional Native corporation has emphasized providing employment within the region through the Red Dog Mine, and the Yup’ik region of southwestern Alaska, which has low numbers of jobs, particularly outside the regional hub of Bethel. In Northwest Alaska, 49% of young Inuit men, ages 22 to 29, described themselves in the 2000 census as either “unemployed” or “out of the labor force.” In Southwest Alaska, 48% of young Inuit men said the same thing. These patterns support the explanation of “male malaise.” However, community studies, which allow fine-grained, household analyses of male and female participation in the wage and subsistence economies are needed to distinguish between these two explanations or suggest other interpretations

The Gender Gap in Higher Education in Alaska

A gender gap strongly favoring women is occurring in higher education throughout the Arctic and is especially severe among indigenous groups. This study documents the size, nature, and recent increase in the gender gap at the University of Alaska, especially for Alaska Native students. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide statistical documentation of this phenomenon. We find that among Alaska Natives, women are earning bachelor’s degrees at almost three times the rate of men and associate degrees at almost five times the rate of men. Furthermore, the gender gap in favor of females widened between 1998 and 2004, the most recent year for which we have information. The experience at the University of Alaska shows that increasing access and providing college preparation and support services alone are not enough to engage indigenous young men in postsecondary education. What may also be needed are ways of making education more compatible with traditional male cultural roles and community values. The Community Trades Technology Program at the University of Alaska has succeeded in enrolling large numbers of young Native men in a postsecondary program through such an educational model. The program 1) is located in the students’ home community; 2) offers cohort-based instruction that enrolls most of the students’ friends; 3) emphasizes practical, hands-on knowledge and the lore of the trade; 4) embeds academic instruction in practical tasks, such as writing letters about construction supplies; 5) connects the educational program to immediate employment in construction projects scheduled for the community; and 6) provides practical help to people, such as doing home repairs, without charge.En matière d’études supérieures dans l’Arctique, il existe un écart prononcé entre les sexes, écart qui se montre en faveur des femmes et se manifeste surtout dans les groupes indigènes. Ce document porte sur l’ampleur, la nature et l’accroissement récent de l’écart entre les sexes à l’Université de l’Alaska, plus particulièrement chez les étudiants autochtones de l’Alaska. À notre connaissance, il s’agit de la première étude à fournir de la documentation statistique au sujet de ce phénomène. Nous avons constaté qu’au sein des Autochtones de l’Alaska, les femmes décrochent un baccalauréat au moins trois fois plus souvent que les hommes, et des diplômes associés au moins cinq fois plus souvent que les hommes. De plus, l’écart entre les sexes en faveur des femmes s’est intensifié entre 1998 et 2004, l’année la plus récente pour laquelle nous possédons de l’information. L’expérience de l’Université de l’Alaska indique que l’amélioration de l’accès et la prestation de services de préparation et de soutien ne suffisent pas à attirer les jeunes hommes à faire des études postsecondaires. Ce qu’il faut probablement, c’est une façon de rendre l’éducation plus compatible avec les rôles traditionnels et culturels de l’homme, ainsi qu’avec les valeurs communautaires. Le programme communautaire de technologies et de métiers (Community Trades Technology Program) de l’Université de l’Alaska a réussi à recueillir les inscriptions de grands nombres de jeunes hommes autochtones dans un programme postsecondaire grâce à un modèle d’études de ce genre. Le programme 1) est donné au sein de la collectivité même des étudiants; 2) est caractérisé par des cours dispensés à la cohorte, qui est composée principalement des amis des étudiants; 3) met l’accent sur des connaissances pratiques et manuelles, ainsi que sur l’attrait des métiers; 4) intègre l’instruction théorique aux tâches pratiques, comme la rédaction de correspondance au sujet de matériaux de construction; 5) établit un lien entre le programme d’études et des emplois immédiats dans le cadre de travaux de construction prévus dans la région; et 6) fournit de l’aide pratique visant à aider les gens, en faisant des réparations à domicile par exemple et ce, gratuitement

Is bicarbonate in Photosystem II the equivalent of the glutamate ligand to the iron atom in bacterial reaction centers?

Photosystem II of oxygen-evolving organisms exhibits a bicarbonate-reversible formate effect on electron transfer between the primary and secondary acceptor quinones, QA and QB. This effect is absent in the otherwise similar electron acceptor complex of purple bacteria, e.g. Rhodobacter sphaeroides. This distinction has led to the suggestion that the iron atom of the acceptor quinone complex in PS II might lack the fifth and sixth ligands provided in the bacterial reaction center (RC) by a glutamate residue at position 234 of the M-subunit in Rb. sphaeroides,RCs (M232 in Rps. viridis). By site-directed mutagenesis we have altered GluM234 in RCs from Rb. sphaeroides, replacing it with valine, glutamine and glycine to form mutants M234EV, M234EQ and M234EG, respectively. These mutants grew competently under phototrophic conditions and were tested for the formate-bicarbonate effect. In chromatophores there were no detectable differences between wild type (Wt) and mutant M234EV with respect to cytochrome b-561 reduction following a flash, and no effect of bicarbonate depletion (by incubation with formate). In isolated RCs, several electron transfer activities were essentially unchanged in Wt and M234EV, M234EQ and M234EG mutants, and no formate-bicarbonate effect was observed on: (a) the fast or slow phases of recovery of the oxidized primary donor (P+) in the absence of exogenous donor, i.e., the recombination of P+QA− or P+QB−, respectively; (b) the kinetics of electron transfer from QA− to QB; or (c) the flash dependent oscillations of semiquinone formation in the presence of donor to P+ (QB turnover). The absence of a formate-bicarbonate effect in these mutants suggests that GluM234 is not responsible for the absence of the formate-bicarbonate effect in Wt bacterial RCs, or at least that other factors must be taken into account. The mutant RCs were also examined for the fast primary electron transfer along the active (A-)branch of the pigment chain, leading to reduction of QA. The kinetics were resolved to reveal the reduction of the monomer bacteriochlorophyll (τ = 3.5 ps), followed by reduction of the bacteriopheophytin (τ = 0.9 ps). Both steps were essentially unaltered from the wild type. However, the rate of reduction of QA was slowed by a factor of 2 (τ = 410 ± 30 and 47 ± 30 ps for M234EQ and M234EV, respectively, compared to 220 ps in the wild type). EPR studies of the isolated RCs showed a characteristic g = 1.82 signal for the QA semiquinone coupled to the iron atom, which was indistinguishable from the wild type. It is concluded that GluM234 is not essential to the normal functioning of the acceptor quinone complex in bacterial RCs and that the role of bicarbonate in PS II is distinct from the role of this residue in bacterial RCs

An Algorithm for constructing Hjelmslev planes

Projective Hjelmslev planes and Affine Hjelmselv planes are generalisations of projective planes and affine planes. We present an algorithm for constructing a projective Hjelmslev planes and affine Hjelsmelv planes using projective planes, affine planes and orthogonal arrays. We show that all 2-uniform projective Hjelmslev planes, and all 2-uniform affine Hjelsmelv planes can be constructed in this way. As a corollary it is shown that all 2-uniform Affine Hjelmselv planes are sub-geometries of 2-uniform projective Hjelmselv planes.Comment: 15 pages. Algebraic Design Theory and Hadamard matrices, 2014, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics 13

Lasing on the D_2 line of sodium in helium atmosphere due to optical pumping on the D_1 line (up-conversion)

A new method is proposed to produce population inversion on transitions involving the ground state of atoms. The method is realized experimentally with sodium atoms. Lasing at the frequency corresponding to the sodium D_2 line is achieved in the presence of pump radiation resonant to the D_1 line with helium as a buffer gas.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Late

Statistical mechanics of temporal association in neural networks with transmission delays

We study the representation of static patterns and temporal sequences in neural networks with signal delays and a stochastic parallel dynamics. For a wide class of delay distributions, the asymptotic network behavior can be described by a generalized Gibbs distribution, generated by a novel Lyapunov functional for the determination dynamics. We extend techniques of equilibrium statistical mechanics so as to deal with time-dependent phenomena, derive analytic results for both retrieval quality and storage capacity, and compare them with numerical simulations

Dynamical model of sequential spatial memory: winnerless competition of patterns

We introduce a new biologically-motivated model of sequential spatial memory which is based on the principle of winnerless competition (WLC). We implement this mechanism in a two-layer neural network structure and present the learning dynamics which leads to the formation of a WLC network. After learning, the system is capable of associative retrieval of pre-recorded sequences of spatial patterns.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR