Of journal editors and editorial boards: who are the trailblazers in increasing editorial board gender equality?

Female academics continue to be under-represented on the editorial boards of many, but not all, management journals. This variability is intriguing, because it is reasonable to assume that the size of the pool of female faculty available and willing to serve on editorial boards is similar for all management journals. Thus, we focus on the characteristics of the journal editors to explain this variability; journal editors or editors-in-chief are the most influential people in the selection of editorial board members. We draw on social identity and homosocial reproduction theories, and on the gender and careers literature to examine the relationship between an editor’s academic performance, professional age and gender, and editorial board gender equality. We collected longitudinal data at five points in time, using five-year intervals, from 52 management journals. To account for the nested structure of the data, a 3-level multilevel model was estimated. Overall, we found that the prospects of board membership improve for women when editors are high performing, professionally young, or female. We discuss these findings and their implications for management journals with low, stagnant, or declining representation of women in their boards

Peroxisome Motility Measurement and Quantification Assay

This is the final version of the article. Available from Bio-protocol via the DOI in this record.Organelle movement, distribution and interaction contribute to the organisation of the eukaryotic cell. Peroxisomes are multifunctional organelles which contribute to cellular lipid metabolism and ROS homeostasis. They distribute uniformly in mammalian cells and move along microtubules via kinesin and dynein motors. Their metabolic cooperation with mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is essential for the β-oxidation of fatty acids and the synthesis of myelin lipids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. A key assay to assess peroxisome motility in mammalian cells is the expression of a fluorescent fusion protein with a peroxisomal targeting signal (e.g., GFP-PTS1), which targets the peroxisomal matrix and allows live-cell imaging of peroxisomes. Here, we first present a protocol for the transfection of cultured mammalian cells with the peroxisomal marker EGFP-SKL to observe peroxisomes in living cells. This approach has revealed different motile behaviour of peroxisomes and novel insight into peroxisomal membrane dynamics (Rapp et al., 1996; Wiemer et al., 1997; Schrader et al., 2000). We then present a protocol which combines the live-cell approach with peroxisome motility measurements and quantification of peroxisome dynamics in mammalian cells. More recently, we used this approach to demonstrate that peroxisome motility and displacement is increased when a molecular tether, which associates peroxisomes with the ER, is lost (Costello et al., 2017b). Silencing of the peroxisomal acyl-CoA binding domain protein ACBD5, which interacts with ER-localised VAPB, increased peroxisome movement in skin fibroblasts, indicating that membrane contact sites can modulate organelle distribution and motility. The protocols described can be adapted to other cell types and organelles to measure and quantify organelle movement under different experimental conditions.This work was supported by grants from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K006231/1 and BB/N01541X/1 to M. Schrader). J. Metz and M. Schrader are supported by a Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Award (WT097835MF and WT105618MA). M. Schrader is supported by Marie Curie Initial Training Network action PerFuMe (316723)

What Does it Take to Reduce Massachusetts Emissions 50% by 2030? Challenges Meeting Climate Goals Under Current Legislation (S.2500)

Executive Summary: To do its part in the global fight against climate change, Massachusetts must achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, and aggressive intermediate goals are essential to ensure that the state is on track for net zero. Senate bill 2500, “An Act setting next generation climate policy,” stipulates that 2030 emissions must “not be less than 50% below the 1990 emissions level.” In 2017, Massachusetts carbon dioxide emissions were 22% below 1990 levels, so the state will need to reduce annual emissions by an additional 28% of 1990 levels by 2030. If enacted, S.2500 would give the state important new tools that would significantly reduce emissions. However, our analysis suggests that additional policies beyond those in S.2500 will likely be necessary to reliably achieve the 2030 goal of cutting emissions in half from 1990 levels. With no new policies enacted (but not accounting for COVID-19), we estimate that 2030 emissions will be roughly 35% below 1990 levels (Figure 1, BAU). We use a range of policy proposals to approximate the key policies in S.2500: the Transportation and Climate Initiative cap and invest program, a net zero stretch building code, and a moderate carbon price ($29/MT rising to$48 in 2030—roughly similar to one in a recent legislative proposal) in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. We use published modeling results to approximate these policies and estimate that they would reduce emissions by an additional 6% below 1990 levels (~41%). This leaves an emissions reductions shortfall of ~9% (or 8 million metric tons of CO2, roughly the equivalent of 1.7 million passenger vehicles) in 2030 (see Fig. 1). To reach a 50% reduction by 2030, Massachusetts could implement a higher carbon price (e.g. $58/MT rising to$95 by 2030), which would be possible under S.2500. Some (but not all) models suggest that a higher carbon price alone would be sufficient to reach 50% of 1990 levels by 2030. Another option (not in S.2500) is to enact an ambitious clean electricity standard to reduce electricity emissions. To ensure we reach the 2030 goal, robust policies will be needed in all major sectors of the state\u27s economy, with electricity sector decarbonization particularly important (Fig. 1, Stringent case)

The orbital poles of Milky Way satellite galaxies: a rotationally supported disc-of-satellites

Available proper motion measurements of Milky Way (MW) satellite galaxies are used to calculate their orbital poles and projected uncertainties. These are compared to a set of recent cold dark-matter (CDM) simulations, tailored specifically to solve the MW satellite problem. We show that the CDM satellite orbital poles are fully consistent with being drawn from a random distribution, while the MW satellite orbital poles indicate that the disc-of-satellites of the Milky Way is rotationally supported. Furthermore, the bootstrapping analysis of the spatial distribution of theoretical CDM satellites also shows that they are consistent with being randomly drawn. The theoretical CDM satellite population thus shows a significantly different orbital and spatial distribution than the MW satellites, most probably indicating that the majority of the latter are of tidal origin rather than being DM dominated sub-structures. A statistic is presented that can be used to test a possible correlation of satellite galaxy orbits with their spatial distribution.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

A strategy for GIS-based 3-D slope stability modelling over large areas

Abstract. GIS-based deterministic models may be used for landslide susceptibility mapping over large areas. However, such efforts require specific strategies to (i) keep computing time at an acceptable level, and (ii) parameterize the geotechnical data. We test and optimize the performance of the GIS-based, 3-D slope stability model r.slope.stability in terms of computing time and model results. The model was developed as a C- and Python-based raster module of the open source software GRASS GIS and considers the 3-D geometry of the sliding surface. It calculates the factor of safety (FoS) and the probability of slope failure (Pf) for a number of randomly selected potential slip surfaces, ellipsoidal or truncated in shape. Model input consists of a digital elevation model (DEM), ranges of geotechnical parameter values derived from laboratory tests, and a range of possible soil depths estimated in the field. Probability density functions are exploited to assign Pf to each ellipsoid. The model calculates for each pixel multiple values of FoS and Pf corresponding to different sliding surfaces. The minimum value of FoS and the maximum value of Pf for each pixel give an estimate of the landslide susceptibility in the study area. Optionally, r.slope.stability is able to split the study area into a defined number of tiles, allowing parallel processing of the model on the given area. Focusing on shallow landslides, we show how multi-core processing makes it possible to reduce computing times by a factor larger than 20 in the study area. We further demonstrate how the number of random slip surfaces and the sampling of parameters influence the average value of Pf and the capacity of r.slope.stability to predict the observed patterns of shallow landslides in the 89.5 km2 Collazzone area in Umbria, central Italy

Spectra of sparse non-Hermitian random matrices: an analytical solution

We present the exact analytical expression for the spectrum of a sparse non-Hermitian random matrix ensemble, generalizing two classical results in random-matrix theory: this analytical expression forms a non-Hermitian version of the Kesten-Mckay law as well as a sparse realization of Girko's elliptic law. Our exact result opens new perspectives in the study of several physical problems modelled on sparse random graphs. In this context, we show analytically that the convergence rate of a transport process on a very sparse graph depends upon the degree of symmetry of the edges in a non-monotonous way.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 12 pages supplemental materia