Barriers to Pursuing STEM-Related Careers: Perceptions of Hispanic Girls Enrolled in Advanced High School STEM Courses

Researchers indicate that the United States has fallen behind other nations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education (President\u27s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2010, 2012). A declining interest in the field of engineering as demonstrated by students who pursue degrees in STEM fields also threatens the U.S. competitive edge (National Science Foundation, 2013; Schneider, Judy, & Mazuca, 2012). Although some students perform successfully in STEM courses, an achievement gap between school-aged boys and girls is well-documented in the literature (e.g., College Board, 2007). Moreover, Hispanic students are underrepresented in science-related courses and careers (Hanley & Noblit, 2009) and even fewer Hispanic girls are attracted to the STEM areas despite the increase in the Hispanic population in general and in higher education (Dolan, 2009). In fact, few studies were located that addressed perspectives of Hispanic girls about their experiences and perceptions related to science and engineering (Crisp, Nora, & Taggart, 2009; Moller et al., 2015; O\u27Shea, Heilbronner, & Reis, 2010). Specifically, there is a need to attract girls and Hispanic students to mathematics and science coursework and careers. Therefore, the purpose of this collective case study was to explore and identify potential barriers and supports related to select Hispanic high school girls\u27 decisions to pursue advanced coursework and future careers in STEM. By increasing awareness of these potential barriers, school leaders will be better positioned to develop strategies and support systems to encourage Hispanic girls to take advanced science courses and seek out postsecondary studies and careers in STEM fields

Estudo da estrutura e ultraestrutura do plexo coroideo anterior no peixe cebra (Danio rerio)

[Resumen]: Los plexos coroideos son tejidos altamente vascularizados, formados por un epitelio coroideo que deriva de una fina capa de revestimiento ependimario conocida como tela coroidea y una región vascular con tejido conectivo circundante. En el pez cebra (Danio rerio) se han descrito dos plexos coroideos, uno anterior a nivel del prosencéfalo y otro posterior a nivel rombencefálico. Debido a la ausencia de información detallada sobre la morfología del plexo coroideo anterior en el pez cebra, se realizó un estudio estructural y ultraestructural con microscopia electrónica de transmisión. Los resultados confirman que el plexo coroideo anterior se localiza a nivel telencefálico y no a nivel diencefálico como había sido propuesto por algunos autores. Se observa que es un derivado de la tela coroidea y se describe morfológicamente como un epitelio monoestratificado cúbico que descansa sobre una lámina basal, con un sistema vascular localizado dorsalmente. Las membranas celulares laterales de las células coroideas muestran uniones intercelulares que lo convierten en un elemento fundamental de la barrera hemato-líquido cefalorraquídeo. Los hallazgos obtenidos en el presente estudio muestran un elevado grado de homología con otras especies, lo que incrementa el interés por el estudio de esta estructura y hacen del pez cebra un posible modelo para el estudio de las patologías relacionadas con este órgano.[Abstract]: The choroid plexuses are a highly vascularized tissues, formed by a choroidal epithelium that derives from a thin layer of ependymal lining known as tela choroidea and a vascular region with surrounding connective tissue. In zebrafish, two choroid plexuses have been described, on located anteriorly in the forebrain and another posteriorly in the hindbrain. Due to the lack of detailed information on the morphology of the anterior choroid plexus in the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a structural and ultrastructural study was carried out using transmission electron microscopy. Results confirm that the anterior choroid plexus is located in the telencephalon, derivative of the tela choroidea and is described morphologically as a cubic monostratified epithelium, on a basal lamina, with a dorsal localized vascular system and lateral membranes showing intercellular junctions that make it a fundamental element of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier. Our findings show a high degree of homology with other 2 species, which increases the interest in the study of this structure and make zebrafish a possible model for the study of pathologies related to this organ.[Resumo]: Os plexos coroideos son tecidos altamente vascularizados formados por un epitelio coroideo que deriva dunha fina capa de revestimento ependimario coñecida como tea coroidea e unha rexión vascular con tecido conectivo circundante. No peixe cebra describironse dous plexos coroideos, un anterior a nivel do prosencéfalo e outro posteiror a nivel do rombencéfalo. Debido á ausencia de información detallada sobre a morfoloxía do plexo coroideo anterior no peixe cebra (Danio rerio), realizouse un estudo estrutural e ultraestructural con microscopia electrónica de transmisión. Os resultados confirman que o plexo coroideo anterior localízase a nivel telecenfálico, procedente da tea coroidea e descríbese morfolóxicamente como un epitelio monoestratificado cúbico, sobre unha lámina basal, cun sistema vascular localizado dorsalmente e membranas laterais que mostran unións intercelulares que lle converten nun elemento fundamental da barreira hemato-líquido cefalorraquídeo. Os achados desde estudo mostran un elevado grao de homoloxía con outras especies, incrementando o interese polo estudo desta estrutura e facendo do peixe cebra un posible modelo para o estudo das patoloxías relacionadas con este órgano.Traballo fin de mestrado (UDC.CIE). Bioloxía molecular, celular e xenética. Curso 2017/201

Ultrasonic measurements in live goats. Prediction of weight of carcass joints

The accuracy of the use of nine ultrasonic measurements of lumbar fat thickness. nine measurements of longissimus dorsi depth. four measurements of sterna! fat thickness. for predicting the weight of carcass joints were assessed in 27 adult Blanca Celtiberica goats ranging in stemal body condition score from 1.5 to 4.5. Comparison between the ultrasonic measurements assessed in live goats with the same measurements taken on carcass were established and the best relationships were obtained between the 1st-2nd and the 3rd-4th lumbar vertebras on the left side. Nevertheless the highest correlations were obtained between the ultrasonic sterna! fat thickness and the same. measurements taken on carcass. Between 77 and 93% of the variation in weight of carcass joints were accounted for by variation in ultrasonic measurements taken on sternum and lumbar region. The ultrasonic muscle depth assessed between the 3rd-4th lumbar vertebra accounted for 88. 83 and 84% of variation in the weight of main carcass joints: leg. rib and shoulder. respectively

Comentario al libro “Luchar por la justicia al viento del espíritu. Autobiografía y esbozo de historia de mi generación”, de Juan Hernández Pico

Los versos de Celaya convertidos en canción y que Piquito incluyó textualmente en el libro resumen su vida y el quehacer del sector de la Compañía de Jesús en la región de la que también nos habla. “Maldigo la poesía de quien no toma partido hasta mancharse” verbalizan lo que tantas personas sentimos: nuestra ética, nuestros principios exigen un compromiso con diferentes causas, no exento de riesgos: de equivocarnos, de apoyar a quien no debimos, de analizar superficialmente una situación, de tomar decisiones incorrectas. Pero el riesgo de “mancharse” no es excusa para no comprometerse

Comentario al libro “Luchar por la justicia al viento del espíritu. Autobiografía y esbozo de historia de mi generación”, de Juan Hernández Pico

Encuentro No. 100, 74-79, 2014Los versos de Celaya convertidos en canción y que Piquito incluyó textualmente en el libro resumen su vida y el quehacer del sector dela Compañía de Jesús en la región de la que también nos habla. “Maldigo la poesía de quien no toma partido hasta mancharse” verbalizan lo que tantas personas sentimos: nuestra ética, nuestros principios exigen un compromiso con diferentes causas, no exento de riesgos: de equivocarnos, de apoyar a quien no debimos, de analizar superficialmenteuna situación, de tomar decisiones incorrectas. Pero el riesgo de “mancharse” no es excusa para no comprometerse

A Sequential Set Generation Method for Predicting Set-Valued Outputs

Consider a general machine learning setting where the output is a set of labels or sequences. This output set is unordered and its size varies with the input. Whereas multi-label classification methods seem a natural first resort, they are not readily applicable to set-valued outputs because of the growth rate of the output space; and because conventional sequence generation doesn't reflect sets' order-free nature. In this paper, we propose a unified framework--sequential set generation (SSG)--that can handle output sets of labels and sequences. SSG is a meta-algorithm that leverages any probabilistic learning method for label or sequence prediction, but employs a proper regularization such that a new label or sequence is generated repeatedly until the full set is produced. Though SSG is sequential in nature, it does not penalize the ordering of the appearance of the set elements and can be applied to a variety of set output problems, such as a set of classification labels or sequences. We perform experiments with both benchmark and synthetic data sets and demonstrate SSG's strong performance over baseline methods.Comment: Published at AAAI 201

AlphaFold Distillation for Improved Inverse Protein Folding

Inverse protein folding, i.e., designing sequences that fold into a given three-dimensional structure, is one of the fundamental design challenges in bio-engineering and drug discovery. Traditionally, inverse folding mainly involves learning from sequences that have an experimentally resolved structure. However, the known structures cover only a tiny space of the protein sequences, imposing limitations on the model learning. Recently proposed forward folding models, e.g., AlphaFold, offer unprecedented opportunity for accurate estimation of the structure given a protein sequence. Naturally, incorporating a forward folding model as a component of an inverse folding approach offers the potential of significantly improving the inverse folding, as the folding model can provide a feedback on any generated sequence in the form of the predicted protein structure or a structural confidence metric. However, at present, these forward folding models are still prohibitively slow to be a part of the model optimization loop during training. In this work, we propose to perform knowledge distillation on the folding model's confidence metrics, e.g., pTM or pLDDT scores, to obtain a smaller, faster and end-to-end differentiable distilled model, which then can be included as part of the structure consistency regularized inverse folding model training. Moreover, our regularization technique is general enough and can be applied in other design tasks, e.g., sequence-based protein infilling. Extensive experiments show a clear benefit of our method over the non-regularized baselines. For example, in inverse folding design problems we observe up to 3% improvement in sequence recovery and up to 45% improvement in protein diversity, while still preserving structural consistency of the generated sequences.Comment: Preprin