Over the past 50 years the diversity of higher education faculty in the mathematical, physical, computer, and engineering sciences (MPCES) has advanced very little at 4-year universities in the United States. This is despite laws and policies such as affirmative action, interventions by universities, and enormous financial investment by federal agencies to diversify science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM) career pathways into academia. Data comparing the fraction of underrepresented minority (URM) postdoctoral scholars to the fraction of faculty at these institutions offer a straightforward empirical explanation for this state of affairs. URM postdoc appointments lag significantly behind progress in terms of both undergraduate and Ph.D.-level STEM student populations. Indeed, URM postdoc appointments lag well-behind faculty diversity itself in the MPCES fields, most of which draw their faculty heavily from the postdoctoral ranks, particularly at research-intensive (R1) universities. Thus, a sea-change in how postdocs are recruited, how their careers are developed, and how they are identified as potential faculty is required in order to diversify the nation’s faculty, and particularly the R1 MPCES professoriate. Our research shows that both Ph.D. students and postdocs benefit from intentional structure at various levels of their respective “apprentice” experiences, a factor that we believe has been neglected. Several key structural approaches are highly effective in these regards: (1) A collaborative approach in which leading research universities collectively identify outstanding URM candidates; (2) Faculty engagement in recruiting and supporting these postdocs; (3) Inter-institutional exchange programs to heighten the visibility and broaden the professional experiences of these postdocs; (4) Community-building activities that create a sense of belonging and encourage continuing in academia for each cohort; and (5) Continuing research based on outcomes and new experimental approaches. The California Alliance, consisting of UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, and Stanford, has been engaged in such a program for almost a decade now, with most of the California Alliance URM postdocs now in tenure track positions or on the path toward careers as faculty at research intensive (R1) institutions. If this approach was brought to scale by involving the top 25 or so URM Ph.D.-producing R1 institutions in the MPCES fields, about 40% of the national URM postdoctoral population in these fields could be affected. Although this impact would fall short of bringing URM MPCES faculty ranks up to full representation of the United States population as a whole, it would vastly improve the outlook for URM students and their aspirations to take on leadership roles as scientists and engineers.
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Moving the California distributed CMS XCache from bare metal into containers using Kubernetes
The University of California system maintains excellent networking between its campuses and a number of other Universities in California, including Caltech, most of them being connected at 100 Gbps. UCSD and Caltech Tier2 centers have joined their disk systems into a single logical caching system, with worker nodes from both sites accessing data from disks at either site. This successful setup has been in place for the last two years. However, coherently managing nodes at multiple physical locations is not trivial and requires an update on the operations model used. The Pacific Research Platform (PRP) provides Kubernetes resource pool spanning resources in the science demilitarized zones (DMZs) in several campuses in California and worldwide. We show how we migrated the XCache services from bare-metal deployments into containers using the PRP cluster. This paper presents the reasoning behind our hardware decisions and the experience in migrating to and operating in a mixed environment.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10299945
- Editor(s):
- Doglioni, C.; Kim, D.; Stewart, G.A.; Silvestris, L.; Jackson, P.; Kamleh, W.
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- EPJ Web of Conferences
- Volume:
- 245
- ISSN:
- 2100-014X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 04042
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Background The University of California system has a novel tenure-track education-focused faculty position called Lecturer with Security of Employment (working titles: Teaching Professor or Professor of Teaching). We focus on the potential difference in implementation of active-learning strategies by faculty type, including tenure-track education-focused faculty, tenure-track research-focused faculty, and non-tenure-track lecturers. In addition, we consider other instructor characteristics (faculty rank, years of teaching, and gender) and classroom characteristics (campus, discipline, and class size). We use a robust clustering algorithm to determine the number of clusters, identify instructors using active learning, and to understand the instructor and classroom characteristics in relation to the adoption of active-learning strategies.
Results We observed 125 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate courses at three University of California campuses using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM to examine active-learning strategies implemented in the classroom. Tenure-track education-focused faculty are more likely to teach with active-learning strategies compared to tenure-track research-focused faculty. Instructor and classroom characteristics that are also related to active learning include campus, discipline, and class size. The campus with initiatives and programs to support undergraduate STEM education is more likely to have instructors who adopt active-learning strategies. There is no difference in instructors in the Biological Sciences, Engineering, or Information and Computer Sciences disciplines who teach actively. However, instructors in the Physical Sciences are less likely to teach actively. Smaller class sizes also tend to have instructors who teach more actively.
Conclusions The novel tenure-track education-focused faculty position within the University of California system represents a formal structure that results in higher adoption of active-learning strategies in undergraduate STEM education. Campus context and evolving expectations of the position (faculty rank) contribute to the symbols related to learning and teaching that correlate with differential implementation of active learning.
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Evans, Christopher J. ; Bryant, Julia J. ; Motohara, Kentaro (Ed.)Since the start of science operations in 1993, the twin 10-meter W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO) telescopes have continued to maximize their scientific impact and to produce transformative discoveries that keep the observing community on the frontiers of astronomical research. Upgraded capabilities and new instrumentation are provided though collaborative partnerships with Caltech, the University of California, and the University of Hawaii instrument development teams, as well as industry and other organizations. This paper summarizes the performance of recently commissioned infrastructure projects, technology upgrades, and new additions to the suite of observatory instrumentation. We also provide a status of projects currently in design or development phases and, since we keep our eye on the future, summarize projects in exploratory phases that originate from our 2022 strategic plan developed in collaboration with our science community to adapt and respond to evolving science needs.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Background: The CDC considers methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) one of the most important hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in the United States. However, infection control departments (ICDs) often rely on subjective data to determine whether multiple MRSA cases are a true outbreak and whether the hospital is responsible (community- vs hospital-acquired). Objective: Our objective was to determine whether whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of MRSA provided new insights into on transmission dynamics at large, inner-city hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Methods: Over a 4-month period, MRSA samples were obtained from 44 infected patients at 3 campuses within a single hospital system. Limited nonpatient identifying information was obtained, including date of collection, campus, unit, reason for admission, and days post admission (DPA) of MRSA diagnosis. Whole-genome sequences were generated using the Illumina platform. Raw reads were processed, and genetic distances were calculated and used to identify genetically linked bacterial infections using FoxSeq version 1.0 software. Results: Based on their length of stay, 10 patients were reported by the ICD as obtaining an HAI. Three distinct “episodes” were evident in which >5 MRSA cases were observed within a 3–5-day period. Genomic analysis identified 5 clusters of linked infections: 4 clusters contained 2 patients and another contained 3. Of these clusters, only 1 contained multiple cases that were reported as HAIs; however, because these case were separated by 2 weeks, it is unlikely that they came from a source in the hospital. The results suggest that HAIs were overreported and that most MRSA present in the hospital likely came from community sources. Conclusions: WGS provided clear evidence that temporally clustered MRSA cases do not imply an outbreak is occurring. Furthermore, ongoing detection of the same community-acquired infections over several months is indicative of a shared source outside of the hospital, which could be uncovered through examination of clinical records. Considering the implications of HAIs, best approaches to combat them should include identifying their sources. As molecular surveillance approaches to infection control are rapidly becoming easier and less expensive, the methods can be used to bring objective clarity to the ICD. Funding: None Disclosures: Susanna L. Lamers reports salary from BioInfoExperts and contract research for the NIH, the University of California - San Francisco, and UMASS Medical School.more » « less
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The Focused Isoprene eXperiment at the California Institute of Technology (FIXCIT) was a collaborative atmospheric chamber campaign that occurred during January 2014. FIXCIT is the laboratory component of a synergistic field and laboratory effort aimed toward (1) better understanding the chemical details behind ambient observations relevant to the southeastern United States, (2) advancing the knowledge of atmospheric oxidation mechanisms of important biogenic hydrocarbons, and (3) characterizing the behavior of field instrumentation using authentic standards. Approximately 20 principal scientists from 14 academic and government institutions performed parallel measurements at a forested site in Alabama and at the atmospheric chambers at Caltech. During the 4 week campaign period, a series of chamber experiments was conducted to investigate the dark- and photo-induced oxidation of isoprene, α-pinene, methacrolein, pinonaldehyde, acylperoxy nitrates, isoprene hydroxy nitrates (ISOPN), isoprene hydroxy hydroperoxides (ISOPOOH), and isoprene epoxydiols (IEPOX) in a highly controlled and atmospherically relevant manner. Pinonaldehyde and isomer-specific standards of ISOPN, ISOPOOH, and IEPOX were synthesized and contributed by campaign participants, which enabled explicit exploration into the oxidation mechanisms and instrument responses for these important atmospheric compounds. The present overview describes the goals, experimental design, instrumental techniques, and preliminary observations from the campaign. This work provides context for forthcoming publications affiliated with the FIXCIT campaign. Insights from FIXCIT are anticipated to aid significantly in interpretation of field data and the revision of mechanisms currently implemented in regional and global atmospheric models.
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202024504042
