An official website of the United States government
Abstract BackgroundStudents' identification with engineering is intertwined culturally with being smart. Broadly, engineering students are often considered to be smart by others and by themselves, and these beliefs about smartness—what it is and who has enough of it to be an engineer—are a fundamental and limiting aspect of students' experiences. PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore how undergraduate engineering students describe themselves as smart enough to be engineers. We aimed to develop rich descriptions of the complex ways they articulate their identities as smart before coming to college and during the first two years of their undergraduate degrees. Design/MethodWe collected data through a series of interviews with 25 participants. We iteratively and collaboratively analyzed the data to determine the predominant ways the participants articulated their identities as smart enough to be engineers. We generated a qualitative data display to check for patterns related to pathways into engineering programs and privileged social identities. ResultsWe found that engineering students have three different ways to articulate that they are smart enough to be engineers: (1) they have innate abilities, (2) they are hardworking and dedicated to learning, and (3) they have skills and experience related to engineering. Additionally, we provide qualitative evidence that the innate abilities articulation relates to privilege. Discussion/ConclusionThe study participants engaged in identity work that produced the three articulations. As engineering educators, we need to take responsibility for the ways in which our participation in the cultural practice of smartness reproduces inequity.
more »
« less
Primes and degrees of Brauer characters
Abstract Let be a finite group and and be different primes. Assume that is odd and . We prove that if divides the degrees of the nonlinear irreducible ‐modular representations, then has a normal ‐complement.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2200850
- PAR ID:
- 10378869
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society
- Volume:
- 55
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0024-6093
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 723-731
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
BackgroundHealth care interactions may require patients to share with a physician information they believe but is incorrect. While a key piece of physicians’ work is educating their patients, people’s concerns of being seen as uninformed or incompetent by physicians may lead them to think that sharing incorrect health beliefs comes with a penalty. We tested people’s perceptions of patients who share incorrect information and how these perceptions vary by the reasonableness of the belief and its centrality to the patient’s disease. DesignWe recruited 399 United States Prolific.co workers (357 retained after exclusions), 200 Prolific.co workers who reported having diabetes (139 after exclusions), and 244 primary care physicians (207 after exclusions). Participants read vignettes describing patients with type 2 diabetes sharing health beliefs that were central or peripheral to the management of diabetes. Beliefs included true and incorrect statements that were reasonable or unreasonable to believe. Participants rated how a doctor would perceive the patient, the patient’s ability to manage their disease, and the patient’s trust in doctors. ResultsParticipants rated patients who shared more unreasonable beliefs more negatively. There was an extra penalty for incorrect statements central to the patient’s diabetes management (sample 1). These results replicated for participants with type 2 diabetes (sample 2) and physician participants (sample 3). ConclusionsParticipants believed that patients who share incorrect information with their physicians will be penalized for their honesty. Physicians need to be educated on patients’ concerns so they can help patients disclose what may be most important for education. HighlightsUnderstanding how people think they will be perceived in a health care setting can help us understand what they may be wary to share with their physicians. People think that patients who share incorrect beliefs will be viewed negatively. Helping patients share incorrect beliefs can improve care.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT QuestionsThe detection and interpretation of ecological processes are strongly influenced by the spatial scale at which studies are conducted. Scale terms (e.g., ‘local’ or ‘regional’) are frequently used to denote study scale and imply that studies using the same scale term should be directly comparable. However, whether the area encompassed by a particular scale term is consistent across studies remains unclear. LocationGlobal. MethodsWe reviewed 385 papers in plant community ecology and analysed 962 spatial scale terms and their reported areas. We tested whether variation in the use of individual scale terms could be explained by habitat, type of study or geographic region, and virtually sampled a simulated plant community to demonstrate the consequences of this variation for calculating common biodiversity metrics. ResultsSingle scale terms covered areas that vary by an average of 4.7 orders of magnitude, with significant overlap between distinct scale terms. Though this variation could be partly explained by habitat type (e.g., scale terms cover larger areas in forests than grasslands), we still found large variability (3.8 orders of magnitude) in the use of single terms within habitats. We also found overall high consistency (but still high variability) in the use of scale terms across geographic regions and study types. Our community simulation showed that Shannon's and Simpson's indices are highly sensitive to this variation, especially at finer spatial scales, suggesting that variation in the use of individual scale terms has major consequences for synthesising biodiversity trends. ConclusionsWhile terminology can make it appear that studies are directly comparable, they may cover vastly different areas and capture different ecological processes. Spatial scales should be reported in a standardised fashion by clearly stating the actual study size in abstracts and methods, and inconsistencies in scale term use should be accounted for when synthesising previous research.more » « less
-
Abstract AimGiven that salamanders have experienced large shifts in their distributions over time, we determined how each species ofPlethodonin the Pacific Northwest would respond to climate change. We incorporated several greenhouse scenarios both on a species‐by‐species basis, and also using phylogenetic groups, with the aim to determine the best course of action in managing land area to conserve diversity in this group. LocationPacific Northwest of the United States (northern CA, OR, WA, ID, and MT). Major taxa studiedWesternPlethodonsalamanders. MethodsSpecies distribution models were estimated using MaxEnt for the current time period and for several future climate scenarios using bioclimatic data layers. We used several methods to quantify the change in habitat suitability over time from the models. We explored aspects of the climate layers to determine whether we can expect a concerted response to climate change due to similarity in ecological niche or independent responses that could be harder to manage. ResultsThe distribution of westernPlethodonsalamander species is strongly influenced by precipitation and less so by temperature. Species responses to climate change resulted in both increases and decreases in predicted suitable habitat, though most species ranges do not contract, especially when taken as a phylogenetic group. Main conclusionsWhile some established habitats may become more or less climatically suitable, the overall distribution of species in this group is unlikely to be significantly affected. Clades ofPlethodonspecies are unlikely to be in danger of extirpation despite the possibility that individual species may be threatened as a result of limited distributions. Grouping species into lineages with similar geographic ranges can be a viable method of determining conservation needs. More biotic and dispersal information is needed to determine the true impact that changes in climate will have on the distribution ofPlethodonspecies.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT AimAll bees depend on angiosperms for survival, while many angiosperms depend on bees for reproduction. However, bee and flowering plant species richness do not peak in the same geographical regions of the world, suggesting that the flora in regions where bees are not as diverse, such as the tropics, may be relatively less bee‐dependent. We test this assumption by analysing whether local relative bee diversity can predict the proportion of angiosperm species that attract bees (i.e., “bee flowers”). LocationThe Americas. Time PeriodPresent. Major Taxa StudiedBees and angiosperms. MethodsWe map the proportion of bees to angiosperm species using recently available datasets of geographic distribution for both taxa. We then combine data from surveys on pollination systems for 56 floristic communities to estimate the proportion of angiosperm species with bee flowers in different regions. Finally, we test whether the proportion of bee flowers in a community can be predicted by a combination of relative bee species richness and abiotic environmental variables. ResultsBroad distribution maps show that the relative richness of bees in relation to angiosperms decreases in tropical areas; however, there is no evidence that tropical floristic communities are less dependent on bees. Interestingly, the proportion of angiosperm species with bee flowers was almost always found to be around 50% across biomes, with some variation depending on the habitat type and method of data collection. Main ConclusionsOur results suggest that plant communities can be highly bee‐dependent even where bees are relatively less diverse. While lower species richness does not mean lower abundance, and fewer bee species of specific life histories can still provide adequate pollination supply for a large number of angiosperm species, this pattern may impact how bee flowers interact with bees in different areas, and consequently how bees and bee flower specialisations have evolved over time.more » « less
