Narratives from Latina Professors in Higher Education

This article shares the lives of three Latina faculty members teaching in state colleges of education. Interviews revealed that the personal and professional experiences they encountered on a daily basis reflected tokenism in the academy, varying levels of support, and perceived burdens and expectations. All three women saw knowledge as contextual and often relied on feelings and intuition to describe and assess their lives in the academy. Recommendations for change within the academy are offered.     

Diversifying the biological sciences: past efforts and future challenges

I am honored to receive the E. E. Just Award for 2010. In my invited essay, I have opted to discuss the state of diversity in the biological sciences with some recommendations for moving forward toward a more positive and inclusive academy. The need to develop cohorts of minority scientists as support groups and to serve as role models within our institutions is stressed, along with the need to ensure that minority scientists are truly included in all aspects of the academy. It is imperative that we increase our efforts to prepare for the unique challenges that we will face as the United States approaches a "majority minority" population in the next 50 years.     

“Social Jetlag” in Morning-Type College Students Living On Campus: Implications for Physical and Psychological Well-being

Although on-campus residence allows easier access to campus facilities, existing studies showed mixed results regarding the relationship between college residence and students’ well-being indicators, such as sleep behaviors and mood. There was also a lack of studies investigating the role of chronotype in the relationship between on-campus residence and well-being. In particular, the temporal relationships among these factors were unclear. Hence, this longitudinal study aims to fill in these gaps by first reporting the well-being (measured in terms of mood, sleep, and quality of life) among students living on and off campus across two academic semesters. We explored factors predicting students’ dropout in university residences. Although students living on campus differ in their chronotypes, activities in campus residence (if any) are mostly scheduled in the nighttime. We therefore tested if individual differences in chronotype interact with campus residence in affecting well-being. Our final sample consisted of 215 campus residents and 924 off-campus-living students from 10 different universities or colleges in Hong Kong or Macau. Their mean age was 20.2 years (SD?=?2.3); 6.5% of the participants are female. Participants completed self-reported questionnaires online on their sleep duration, sleep quality, chronotype, mood, and physical and psychological quality of life. Across two academic semesters, we assessed if students living on and off campus differed in our well-being measures after we partialed out the effects of demographic information (including age, sex, family income, and parents’ education) and the well-being measures at baseline (T1). The results showed that, campus residents exhibited longer sleep duration, greater sleep efficiency, better sleep quality, and less feeling of stress than off-campus-living students. From one semester to the next, around 10% of campus residents did not continue to live on campus. Logistic regression showed that a morning type was the strongest factor predicting dropout from campus residence. Chronotype significantly moderated the effects of campus residence on participants’ physical and psychological quality of life. Although morning-type off-campus-living students have better well-being than their evening-type peers living off campus, morning-type campus residents had worse well-being than other campus residents and they were more likely to discontinue living on campus after one semester. Our findings bear practical significance to college management that morning-type campus residents are shown to be experiencing deteriorating well-being. The authorities may need to review and revise the room-allocation policy in campus residence in improving the well-being among campus residents.     

Medical education and society.

As health care changes under the pressures of restraint and constraint our vision of the future of medical education should be based on the medical school''s responsibility to the community. The medical school is "an academy in the community": as an academy, it fosters the highest standards in education and research; as an institution in the community, it seeks to improve public health and alleviate suffering. The author argues that to better achieve these goals medical schools need to become more responsible and responsive to the population they serve. Medical schools have been slow to accept fully the social contract by which, in return for their service to society, they enjoy special rights and benefits. This contract requires that medical educators listen to the public, talk honestly and constructively with government representatives and assess the needs and expectations of the community.     

PRIOR NIGHT SLEEP DURATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH PSYCHOMOTOR VIGILANCE IN A HEALTHY SAMPLE OF POLICE ACADEMY RECRUITS

Aviation, military, police, and health care personnel have been particularly interested in the operational impact of sleep restriction and work schedules given the potential severe consequences of making fatigue-related errors. Most studies examining the impact of sleep loss or circadian manipulations have been conducted in controlled laboratory settings using small sample sizes. This study examined whether the relationship between prior night sleep duration and performance on the psychomotor vigilance task could be reliably detected in a field study of healthy police academy recruits. Subjects (N?=?189) were medically and psychiatrically healthy. Sleep-wake activity was assessed with wrist actigraphy for 7 days. Subjects performed the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) for 5?min on a personal digital assistant (PDA) device before and after their police academy workday and on comparable times during their days off. Mixed-effects logistic regression was used to estimate the probability of having ≥1 lapse on the PVT as a function of the previous night sleep duration during the 7 days of field testing. Valid estimates of sleep duration were obtained for 1082 nights of sleep. The probability of a lapse decreased by 3.5%/h sleep the night prior to testing. The overall probability of having a lapse decreased by 0.9%/h since awakening, holding hours of sleep constant. Perceived stress was not associated with sleep duration or probability of performance lapse. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of detecting sleep and circadian effects on cognitive performance in large field studies. These findings have implications regarding the daytime functioning of police officers. (Author correspondence: Thomas.Neylan@ucsf.edu)     

高校校园生态系统可控性

在环境问题日趋严重的背景下,人类一直在探索将城市生态系统改造成能够自身循环、更好利用可再生能源、同时大幅减少排放的受控系统,但由于该系统的复杂度太高,可控程度较低,其实现难度很大。高校校园可视为比较典型的城市生态系统的子系统,在合理的管控与现代信息技术的支持下,高校校园最有可能实现生态系统可控化建设。对四个主要生态流(物质流、能量流、人口流、信息流)在高校生态系统中的作用进行理论阐述,针对具有中国特色、学生大规模集中居住的高校校园,提出了一种新的受控生态系统改造方案。通过对现有校园生态工程技术进行组装,完成校园生态系统基础构筑。利用综合的校园生态系统信息流管理平台监管校园物质循环、能量流动、人口流动,探讨了可实现的高校受控生态系统的建设模式,最终提出了高校受控生态系统建设的理论模型,以期达到高校校园物质与能源利用效率最大化,降低碳排放,改善局部小型气候群,进而改善环境大气候。研究结果如能较好的应用到实践中,将为城市生态系统建设提供重要参考,意味着现代生态学将为人类发展作出一定的贡献。     

Australian Indigenous Studies: A Question of Discipline

This paper is an early discussion of the ways we are approaching Indigenous Studies in Australian Universities. The focus is on how disciplinary and scholarly issues within Indigenous Studies can be interrogated and yet retain the necessary cohesion and solidarity so important to the Indigenous struggle. The paper contrasts Indigenous Studies pursued by Indigenous scholars to other disciplinary perspectives in the academy. Categories such as the Indigenous community and Indigenous knowledge are problematised, not to dissolve them, but to explore productive avenues. I identify one of the problems that Indigenous studies faces as resisting the tendency to perpetuate an enclave within the academy whose purpose is to reflect back an impoverished and codified representation of Indigenous culture to the communities that are its source. On the other hand, there is danger also in the necessary engagement with other disciplines on their own terms. My suggestion is that we see ourselves mapping our understanding of our particular Indigenous experiences upon a terrain intersected by the pathways, both of other Indigenous experiences, and of the non‐Indigenous academic disciplines. My intention is to stimulate some thought among Indigenous academics and scholars about the future possibilities of Australian Indigenous Studies as a field of endeavour.     

Field work in Romania: Introduction

Conclusions An even broader theoretical conclusion is in order. The term modernization has been enshrined in the value-free literature on development which the Western academy has created and supported. But the experience of Brasov, a local manifestation of Romanian development, makes it clear that modernization is by no means confined to Western assumptions, and that it always occurs in specific ways depending on the social situation of the society undergoing change, and on the political nature of the program being adopted. In short, socialist modernization in Romania is not parallel to modernization under capitalist auspices in analogous areas.     

Strange Craft, Strange History, Strange Folks: Cultural Amnesia and the Case for Lesbian and Gay Studies

The academy today is only vaguely aware that its racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual makeup does not reflect the diversity of the society that surrounds it. When the university fails to encompass lesbian and gay studies, it loses not only knowledge of the presence of homosexuality in history and culture but analysis of homophobia and the role it has played in constructing the present. What is at stake is the integrity of the Western tradition of scholarship. The question is whether its studies can be objective, thorough, accurate, and complete-in a word, scholarly-as long as subjects like homosexuality, homosexual persons, and homophobia are systematically excluded.     

The Future of Anthropology

The future of anthropology depends on what it contributes, both to thought and to society. Whether it survives, flourishes, or becomes extinct depends on anthropology's ability to become an intregal and significant, yet not subservient, part of our culture and society. To flourish, we must press outward; we must mobilize our work and ourselves to make a difference beyond the discipline and the academy. This objective implies change in our priorities and hence in our work.     

Effect of various inhibitors on oxidative activity and ultrastructure of rat liver mitochondria]

Parallel studies concerning the influence of some inhibitors on electron transfer, and ultrastructural aspects of rat liver mitochondria led to the conclusion that metabolic activity and mitochondrial ultrastructure are closely linked ; when mitochondria oxidize succinate, their configuration change from the "condensed" to the "orthodox" state ; this change does not occur if the oxidation is inhibited.     

Tropical wetlands for climate change research, water quality management and conservation education on a university campus in Costa Rica

EARTH University is a small agronomic university with a theme of sustainability in eastern Costa Rica. Several natural and constructed wetlands on its campus are used for research, water quality improvement, and higher education. It has become an important location for research and teaching on humid tropical wetland ecology and management. A 112-ha flow-through Raphia taedigera (Arecaceae) forested wetland is being used for climate change research, focusing on carbon sequestration and methane generation. Methane emissions are measured seasonally and are comparable to rates in tropical wetlands published elsewhere. Carbon sequestration by the wetland appears to be substantially higher than similar flow-through temperate zone wetlands. Treatment wetlands are used on campus to improve water quality of effluents from an animal farm, a dairy plant, a landfill, and a banana paper plant. Water quality was substantially improved in all of these wetlands except the landfill leachate wetland. All of these campus wetlands have been integrated into the four-year education program of EARTH University and 22 undergraduate projects have been completed on wetlands over the past 14 years.     

After Authenticity at an American Heritage Site

This essay explores what happens to a heritage site "after authenticity." The site is Colonial Williamsburg, one of the most ambitious reconstruction projects ever undertaken and a place intended to be experienced as an objective correlate of an American national "identity." Because it makes such claims, throughout its history the site has been subject to critiques by those wishing to undermine its authority to speak as the voice of an all-encompassing America. Moreover, in the past 20 years, professional historians at Colonial Williamsburg have become articulate on-site critics of the epistemology of authenticity as they promulgate a historiography currently popular in history museums and in the academy.     

Agent农业土地变化模型研究进展

农业土地变化是全球变化与可持续研究的热点,当前研究虽取得了长足进展,但仍存在诸多不足,集中表现在对农业土地系统复杂性与动态性的认识不够.近年来,基于Agent的农业土地变化研究(农业ABM/LUCC,Agent-based agricultural land change modeling)逐渐兴起,极大的丰富了传统研究的理论与方法,具体表现在:(1)农业ABM/LUCC将微观层面的人类个体行为整合进土地变化研究框架,有助于更加清楚的认识农业土地系统的“人类-自然”综合复杂性问题.(2)农业ABM/LUCC能够动态表达土地系统变化的内生反馈机制,有助于弥补传统的静态土地变化驱动机制分析的不足.(3)基于ABM/LUCC的农业土地利用格局动态研究是整合“人类-自然”综合研究的关键桥梁,农业ABM/LUCC能够与其他生物地球物理模型或经济模型动态嵌套,使多尺度、多维度综合模型研究成为可能.然而,农业ABM/LUCC研究也存在诸多挑战,如理论研究滞后于应用研究,大尺度应用难以开展,以及农户行为的模拟结果很难得到校验等.     

Eco-hydrological effects of landscape pattern change

Scientists and environmental managers alike are increasingly concerned about landscape pattern change and its effect on hydrological and ecological processes. In this paper, research progress is reviewed and key issues of eco-hydrological effects of landscape pattern change are discussed. There are different eco-hydrological effects with landscape pattern change, and most attention is paid to runoff, water quality, and soil loss. Landscape shape and spatial distribution can change precipitation-runoff processes and lead to the change in runoff yield. Water quality is closely connected with the composition and spatial pattern of source and sink landscapes. Soil erosion systems are usually modified by land use structure and landscape pattern, and soil loss will be either reduced or increased with land use change. In addition, the change of landscape pattern also has potential impacts on climate and soil quality. In future studies, more attention should be paid to comprehensive multi-scale and integrated research of landscape pattern and eco-hydrological processes.     

激光大豆新品种德豆99-16的选育及其应用研究

德豆99-16是德州市农科院以美国高产黄沙大豆为亲本材料,利用He-Ne激光辐射诱变技术培育出的大豆新品种,2006年通过了国家农作物品种审定委员会的审定。利用品种稳定性参数和高稳系数法对德豆99-16的高产稳产性进行分析,结果表明:德豆99-16是高产、稳产、优质、多抗、适应性强的大豆新品种,又对德豆99-16增产原因进行了初步探讨,为其大面积推广奠定理论基础。     

Campus drinking: an epidemiological model

The drinking behaviours of college students have posed significant public health concerns for several generations. However, the dynamics of campus drinking have not been analysed using mathematical models. An epidemiological model capturing the dynamics of campus drinking is used to study how the ‘disease’ of drinking is spread on campus. The model suggests that the reproductive numbers are not sufficient to predict whether drinking behaviour will persist on campus and that the pattern of recruiting new members plays a significant role in the reduction of campus alcohol problems. In particular, campus alcohol abuse may be reduced by minimizing the ability of problem drinkers to directly recruit non-drinkers.     

Campus drinking: an epidemiological model

The drinking behaviours of college students have posed significant public health concerns for several generations. However, the dynamics of campus drinking have not been analysed using mathematical models. An epidemiological model capturing the dynamics of campus drinking is used to study how the 'disease' of drinking is spread on campus. The model suggests that the reproductive numbers are not sufficient to predict whether drinking behaviour will persist on campus and that the pattern of recruiting new members plays a significant role in the reduction of campus alcohol problems. In particular, campus alcohol abuse may be reduced by minimizing the ability of problem drinkers to directly recruit non-drinkers.     

Habitat fragmentation provides a competitive advantage to an invasive tree squirrel, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sciurus carolinensis</Emphasis>

Changes in the composition of biological communities can be elicited by competitive exclusion, wherein a species is excluded from viable habitat by a superior competitor. Yet less is known about the role of environmental change in facilitating or mitigating exclusion in the context of invasive species. In these situations, decline in a native species can be due to the effects of habitat change, or due to direct effects from invasive species themselves. This is summarized by the “driver-passenger” concept of native species loss. We present a multi-year study of tree squirrels that tested the hypothesis that tree canopy fragmentation, often a result of human development, influenced the replacement of native western gray tree squirrels (Sciurus griseus) by non-native eastern gray tree squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). We tested this hypothesis along a continuum of invasion across three study sites in central California. We found that within the developed areas of the University of California at Santa Cruz campus and city of Santa Cruz, S. carolinensis excluded S. griseus from viable habitat. The competitive advantage of S. carolinensis may be due to morphological and/or behavioral adaptation to terrestrial life in fragmented hardwood forests. We classify S. carolinensis as a “driver” of the decline of native S. griseus in areas with high tree canopy fragmentation. Future habitat fragmentation in western North America may result in similar invasion dynamics between these species. Our study warrants consideration of existing and predicted interactions between potentially invasive species that co-occur with native species where land use change is proposed.     

Public engagement offers insights on the Eurasian red squirrel distribution

After centuries of absence, the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is recolonizing and expanding throughout Portugal. We implemented an online community-based project, which enabled us to obtain unprecedented records on the Eurasian red squirrel distribution, not only allowing us to map its current extent area but also to reconstruct its southward range expansion during the past years in Portugal. Possible origins of dispersion are forested areas in the northwestern and eastern Spanish borders and sites of reintroductions in Lisbon, Porto, and Coimbra. This well-established public engagement platform sets a successful example of integrated efforts between society and academy in gathering data on species distribution.