Do Trustees and Administrators Matter? Diversifying the Faculty Across Gender Lines

Our paper focuses on the role that the gender composition of the leaders of American colleges and universities -trustees, presidents/chancellors, and provosts/academic vice presidents - plays in influencing the rate at which academic institutions diversify their faculty across gender lines. Our analyses make use of institutional level panel data that we have collected on for a large sample of American academic institutions. We find that, other factors held constant including our estimate of the "expected" share of new hires at an institution that should be female, that institutions with female presidents/chancellors and female provosts/academic vice presidents, and those with a greater share of female trustees, increase their shares of female faculty at a more rapid rate. The magnitudes of the effects of these leaders are larger at smaller institutions, where central administrators may play a larger role in faculty hiring decisions. A critical share of female trustees must be reached before the gender composition of the board matters.

A Reduced Order Approach for the Embedded Shifted Boundary FEM and a Heat Exchange System on Parametrized Geometries

A model order reduction technique is combined with an embedded boundary finite element method with a POD-Galerkin strategy. The proposed methodology is applied to parametrized heat transfer problems and we rely on a sufficiently refined shape-regular background mesh to account for parametrized geometries. In particular, the employed embedded boundary element method is the Shifted Boundary Method (SBM), recently proposed in Main and Scovazzi, J Comput Phys [17]. This approach is based on the idea of shifting the location of true boundary conditions to a surrogate boundary, with the goal of avoiding cut cells near the boundary of the computational domain. This combination of methodologies has multiple advantages. In the first place, since the Shifted Boundary Method always relies on the same background mesh, there is no need to update the discretized parametric domain. Secondly, we avoid the treatment of cut cell elements, which usually need particular attention. Thirdly, since the whole background mesh is considered in the reduced basis construction, the SBM allows for a smooth transition of the reduced modes across the immersed domain boundary. The performances of the method are verified in two dimensional heat transfer numerical examples

Multiple-University Extension Program Addresses Postdisaster Oil Spill Needs Through Private Funding Partnership

In response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was formed to answer oil spill–related scientific questions. However, peer-reviewed scientific discoveries were not reaching people whose livelihoods depended on a healthy Gulf of Mexico. GoMRI and the four Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant programs partnered to develop a regional Extension program with a team of multidisciplinary specialists and a regional manager embedded within the Sea Grant programs. The team answered oil spill science questions from target audiences. The program leaders also identified the value of adding a regional Extension communicator to enhance their Extension products

Imaging Inter-Edge State Scattering Centers in the Quantum Hall Regime

We use an atomic force microscope tip as a local gate to study the scattering between edge channels in a 2D electron gas in the quantum Hall regime. The scattering is dominated by individual, microscopic scattering centers, which we directly image here for the first time. The tip voltage dependence of the scattering indicates that tunneling occurs through weak links and localized states.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Invasive Species Terminology: Standardizing for Stakeholder Education

The excessive number of terms associated with invasive species, and their often incorrect usage, hinders stakeholder education about the threats of invasive species. Here we introduce seven terms (native, nonnative, introduced, established, invasive, nuisance, and range change) that are applicable across invasive taxa, understandable, typically interpreted correctly, and useful for describing most situations regarding invasive species. We also list six terms to avoid (native invasive, invasive exotic, invasive weed, alien, foreign, and nonindigenous) that create confusion via their misuse and misinterpretation. The terms we propose will increase understanding, thereby promoting behavior changes aimed at limiting the negative impacts of invasive species

Using Noninvasive Genetics for Estimating Density and Assessing Diet of Urban and Rural Coyotes in Florida, USA

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are expanding their range and due to conflicts with the public and concerns of Coyotes affecting natural resources such as game or sensitive species, there is interest and often a demand to monitor Coyote populations. A challenge to monitoring is that traditional invasive methods involving live-capture of individual animals are costly and can be controversial. Natural resource management agencies can benefit from contemporary noninvasive genetic sampling approaches aimed at determining key aspects of Coyote ecology (e.g., population density and food habits). However, the efficacy of such approaches under different environmental conditions is poorly understood. Our objectives were to 1) examine accumulation and nuclear DNA degradation rates of Coyote scats in metropolitan and rural sites in Florida to help optimize methods to estimate population density; and 2) explore new genetic methods for determining diet of Coyotes based on vertebrate, plant, and invertebrate species DNA identified in scat. Recently developed DNA metabarcoding approaches make it possible to simultaneously identify DNA from multiple prey species in predator scat samples, but an exploration of this tool for assessing Coyote diet has not been pursued. We observed that scat accumulation rates (0.02 scats/km/day) did not vary between sites and fecal DNA amplification success decreased and genotyping errors increased over time with exposure to sun and precipitation. DNA sampling allowed us to generate a Coyote density estimate for the urban environment of eight Coyotes per 100 km2, but lack of recaptures in the rural area precluded density estimation. DNA metabarcoding showed promise for assessing diet contributions of vertebrate species to Coyote diet. Feral Swine (Sus scrofa) were detected as prey at higher frequencies than previously reported. We identify several considerations that can be used to optimize future noninvasive sampling efforts for Coyotes in the southeastern United States. We also discuss strengths and drawbacks of utilizing DNA metabarcoding for assessing diet of generalist carnivores such as Coyotes

Effectiveness of physiotherapy exercise following hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis: a systematic review of clinical trials

Background: Physiotherapy has long been a routine component of patient rehabilitation following hip joint replacement. The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of physiotherapy exercise after discharge from hospital on function, walking, range of motion, quality of life and muscle strength, for osteoarthritic patients following elective primary total hip arthroplasty. Methods: Design: Systematic review, using the Cochrane Collaboration Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and the Quorom Statement. Database searches: AMED, CINAHL, EMBASE, KingsFund, MEDLINE, Cochrane library (Cochrane reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, DARE), PEDro, The Department of Health National Research Register. Handsearches: Physiotherapy, Physical Therapy, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (Britain) Conference Proceedings. No language restrictions were applied. Selection: Trials comparing physiotherapy exercise versus usual/standard care, or comparing two types of relevant exercise physiotherapy, following discharge from hospital after elective primary total hip replacement for osteoarthritis were reviewed. Outcomes: Functional activities of daily living, walking, quality of life, muscle strength and range of hip joint motion. Trial quality was extensively evaluated. Narrative synthesis plus meta-analytic summaries were performed to summarise the data. Results: 8 trials were identified. Trial quality was mixed. Generally poor trial quality, quantity and diversity prevented explanatory meta-analyses. The results were synthesised and meta-analytic summaries were used where possible to provide a formal summary of results. Results indicate that physiotherapy exercise after discharge following total hip replacement has the potential to benefit patients. Conclusion: Insufficient evidence exists to establish the effectiveness of physiotherapy exercise following primary hip replacement for osteoarthritis. Further well designed trials are required to determine the value of post discharge exercise following this increasingly common surgical procedure

Clinical disorders affecting mesopic vision

Vision in the mesopic range is affected by a number of inherited and acquired clinical disorders. We review these conditions and summarize the historical background, describing the clinical characteristics alongside the genetic basis and molecular biological mechanisms giving rise to rod and cone dysfunction relevant to twilight vision. The current diagnostic gold standards for each disease are discussed and curative and symptomatic treatment strategies are summarized