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

NON-GRAY PHONON TRANSPORT USING A HYBRID BTE-FOURIER SOLVER

Non-gray phonon transport solvers based on the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) are frequently employed to simulate sub-micron thermal transport. Typical solution procedures using sequential solution schemes encounter numerical difficulties because of the large spread in scattering rates. For frequency bands with very low Knudsen numbers, strong coupling between the directional BTEs results in slow convergence for sequential solution procedures. In this paper, we present a hybrid BTE-Fourier model which addresses this issue. By establishing a phonon group cutoff (say Kn=0.1), phonon bands with low Knudsen numbers are solved using a modified Fourier equation which includes a scattering term as well as corrections to account for boundary temperature slip. Phonon bands with high Knudsen numbers are solved using a BTE solver. Once the governing equations are solved for each phonon group, their energies are then summed to find the total lattice energy and correspondingly, the lattice temperature. An iterative procedure combining the lattice temperature determination and the solutions to the modified Fourier and BTE equations is developed. The procedure is shown to work well across a range of Knudsen numbers

Effects of Ciji Hua’Ai Baosheng formula on apoptosis correlation factors of tumor chemotherapy model mouse with H22 hepatomacarcinoma cells

Background: Side effects of chemotherapy are major issues for cancer patients and there are few methods to release these. However, traditional Chinese medicine is one of the options for these patients. This study is to evaluate one traditional Chinese empirical formula – the Ciji Hua’ai Baosheng Formula (CHBF) on apoptosis related factors in a transplanted tumor chemotherapy model.Materials and Methods: H22 hepatoma cells were injected into peritoneal cavity and Cytoxan (CTX) (200mg/kg) was used to treat these carcinoma cells. Mice were divided into control, CTX control, and CTX plus three different concentrations of CHBF groups. H22 hepatoma cells proliferation, serum levels of apoptosis related factors, and bone marrow cyclin D1 expression was evaluated.Results: After treatment of CHBF, H22 hepatoma cell proliferation was lower than that in CTX group. The pro-apoptosis related proteins Bax and Caspase-3 were elevated while anti-apoptosis related protein Bcl-2 was reduced. Moreover, serum epidermal growth factor receptor level and bone marrow cyclin D1 expression were significantly reduced in CHBF treated groups.Conclusion: The Ciji Hua’ai Baosheng Formulae could modulate apoptotic and proliferative factors in a model of tumor with chemotherapy, which may be the mechanisms why it can release chemotherapy related side effect in patients with cancer.Key words: Ciji Hua’ai Baosheng Formula (CHBF); tumor chemotherapy model; Bax; Bcl-2; Caspase-3; epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR); CyclinD1; H22 hepatoma carcinoma cel

Ten weeks of home-based exercise attenuates symptoms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in breast cancer patients

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if a structured, home-based exercise program was beneficial to reduce symptoms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and improve quality of life (QOL). A total of 50 women who are breast cancer survivors and are listed in the Breast Cancer Registry of Greater Cincinnati database were recruited by mail. Participants were initially asked to complete the McGill QOL questionnaire and the Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs, before beginning a 10-week home-based exercise program. At the completion of the exercise program, subjects were asked again to complete the same two questionnaires. Pre- and post-intervention data were analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA, at a significance level of α<0.05. Six individuals completed the investigation. Prior to the 10-week exercise program, participants described their pain as unpleasant skin sensations (Pre-HBEx, N=6), abnormally sensitive to touch (Pre-HBEx, N=6), and coming on suddenly in bursts for no apparent reason (Pre-HBEx, N=5). Following 10-weeks of exercise, participants reported experiencing less of these symptoms (Post- HBEx, N=3, 1, and 4 respectively; P=0.05). It was also determined that troublesome symp- toms were significantly reduced after 10- weeks of home-based exercise (P=0.05)

Sketch Me That Shoe

This project received support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement #640891, the Royal Society and Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) joint grant #IE141387 and #61511130081, and the China Scholarship Council (CSC). We gratefully acknowledge the support of NVIDIA Corporation for the donation of the GPUs used for this research

Associations of physical activity and sedentary behavior during pregnancy with gestational diabetes mellitus among Asian women in Singapore

Background Few studies have investigated physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) in relation to fasting (FG) and 2-h postprandial plasma glucose (2hPG) levels and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM); we investigated these associations among Asian pregnant women. Methods As part of the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes cohort study, PA and SB (sitting and television times) were assessed by interviewer-administered questionnaire. During 75 g oral glucose tolerance tests at 26–28 weeks’ gestation we measured FG, 2hPG levels and GDM (FG ≥ 7.0 mmol/L and/or 2hPG ≥ 7.8 mmol/L). Associations were analysed by multiple linear and logistic regression. Results Among the 1083 women studied, 18.6% had GDM. SB was not associated with FG, 2hPG and GDM. Higher categories of PA were associated with lower 2hPG and a lower likelihood of GDM (p-trend < 0.05), but not with FG levels. Compared to insufficiently active women, highly active women had lower 2hPG levels [β (95% CI): -0.32 (−0.59, −0.05), p = 0.020) and were less likely to have GDM [OR: 0.56 (0.32–0.98), p = 0.040]. Stratified analysis revealed no associations among under/normal-weight women, but significant associations among overweight/obese women; in those with BMI ≥23 kg/m2, sufficiently active and highly active women were less likely to have GDM [OR: 0.52, (0.29–0.93), p = 0.028, and OR: 0.34, (0.15–0.77), p = 0.010, respectively]. Conclusion Higher PA was associated with lower 2hPG levels and a lower prevalence of GDM, particularly in overweight/obese women. Further studies are warranted to confirm these findings, and to examine the effectiveness of PA promotion strategies for the prevention of gestational hyperglycemia

The Malagarasi River Does Not Form an Absolute Barrier to Chimpanzee Movement in Western Tanzania

The Malagarasi River has long been thought to be a barrier to chimpanzee movements in western Tanzania. This potential geographic boundary could affect chimpanzee ranging behavior, population connectivity and pathogen transmission, and thus has implications for conservation strategies and government policy. Indeed, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence comparisons it was recently argued that chimpanzees from communities to the north and to the south of the Malagarasi are surprisingly distantly related, suggesting that the river prevents gene flow. To investigate this, we conducted a survey along the Malagarasi River. We found a ford comprised of rocks that researchers could cross on foot. On a trail leading to this ford, we collected 13 fresh fecal samples containing chimpanzee DNA, two of which tested positive for SIVcpz. We also found chimpanzee feces within the riverbed. Taken together, this evidence suggests that the Malagarasi River is not an absolute barrier to chimpanzee movements and communities from the areas to the north and south should be considered a single population. These results have important consequences for our understanding of gene flow, disease dynamics and conservation management

Application of COMPOCHIP Microarray to Investigate the Bacterial Communities of Different Composts

A microarray spotted with 369 different 16S rRNA gene probes specific to microorganisms involved in the degradation process of organic waste during composting was developed. The microarray was tested with pure cultures, and of the 30,258 individual probe-target hybridization reactions performed, there were only 188 false positive (0.62%) and 22 false negative signals (0.07%). Labeled target DNA was prepared by polymerase chain reaction amplification of 16S rRNA genes using a Cy5-labeled universal bacterial forward primer and a universal reverse primer. The COMPOCHIP microarray was applied to three different compost types (green compost, manure mix compost, and anaerobic digestate compost) of different maturity (2, 8, and 16 weeks), and differences in the microorganisms in the three compost types and maturity stages were observed. Multivariate analysis showed that the bacterial composition of the three composts was different at the beginning of the composting process and became more similar upon maturation. Certain probes (targeting Sphingobacterium, Actinomyces, Xylella/Xanthomonas/ Stenotrophomonas, Microbacterium, Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes, Low G + C and Alphaproteobacteria) were more influential in discriminating between different composts. Results from denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis supported those of microarray analysis. This study showed that the COMPOCHIP array is a suitable tool to study bacterial communities in composts

Towards Person Identification and Re-identification with Attributes

Abstract. Visual identification of an individual in a crowded environ-ment observed by a distributed camera network is critical to a variety of tasks including commercial space management, border control, and crime prevention. Automatic re-identification of a human from public space CCTV video is challenging due to spatiotemporal visual feature varia-tions and strong visual similarity in people’s appearance, compounded by low-resolution and poor quality video data. Relying on re-identification using a probe image is limiting, as a linguistic description of an individ-ual’s profile may often be the only available cues. In this work, we show how mid-level semantic attributes can be used synergistically with low-level features for both identification and re-identification. Specifically, we learn an attribute-centric representation to describe people, and a met-ric for comparing attribute profiles to disambiguate individuals. This differs from existing approaches to re-identification which rely purely on bottom-up statistics of low-level features: it allows improved robustness to view and lighting; and can be used for identification as well as re-identification. Experiments demonstrate the flexibility and effectiveness of our approach compared to existing feature representations when ap-plied to benchmark datasets.

Elucidation of single atom catalysts for energy and sustainable chemical production: Synthesis, characterization and frontier science

The emergence of single atom sites as a frontier research area in catalysis has sparked extensive academic and industrial interest, especially for energy, environmental and chemicals production processes. Single atom catalysts (SACs) have shown remarkable performance in a variety of catalytic reactions, demonstrating high selectivity to the products of interest, long lifespan, high stability and more importantly high atomic metal utilization efficiency. In this review, we unveil in depth insights on development and achievements of SACs, including (a) Chronological progress on SACs development, (b) Recent advances in SACs synthesis, (c) Spatial and temporal SACs characterization techniques, (d) Application of SACs in different energy and chemical production, (e) Environmental and economic aspects of SACs, and (f) Current challenges, promising ideas and future prospects for SACs. On a whole, this review serves to enlighten scientists and engineers in developing fundamental catalytic understanding that can be applied into the future, both for academia or valorizing chemical processes