Abstract Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play a foundational role in promoting equality in U.S. higher education and society. Studying faculty transitions and research dynamics at HBCUs is crucial to understanding and addressing these institutions’ challenges, such as the brain drain and its relationships with faculty research practices. By tracking the affiliation changes of 139 professors and their research outcomes (consisting of 4,269 publications) and comparing them with a matched control group with similar backgrounds, we revealed a moving penalty for professors moving from Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) to HBCUs, who experienced declines in research productivity and citation impact. In contrast, professors transitioning from HBCUs to PWIs benefited from the moving premium of increasing high-impact publications. Professors at HBCUs tend to increase their collaborations with PWIs before transitioning, while those moving to PWIs reduce their collaborations with HBCUs. Our findings highlight the ongoing challenges HBCUs face and underscore the need for comprehensive strategies to strengthen these institutions’ research functionality and ultimately their overall academic standing.
more »
« less
Remaining safe conducting Field work While Black (FWB), and Tips for PIs, Universities, and Employers of Black Individuals
Synopsis Field work is essential to the career of many biologists; however, when working in the field while black (FWB), everyday tasks conducted while in the field can be life-threatening. As a Black individual or as the principal investigator supervising Black individuals, safety in the field requires you to not only navigate weather and wildlife but also your fellow humans. In this article, I address some of the challenges faced by Black scientists in the field, as well as within conservation agencies, universities, and neighboring towns of field sites. I will also discuss how PIs, universities, and employers can ensure a safer, more inclusive experience for their Black friends, colleagues, and students while conducting fieldwork.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2225652
- PAR ID:
- 10555042
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Integrative And Comparative Biology
- Volume:
- 63
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1540-7063
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 108 to 113
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Low-collisionality plasma in a magnetic field generically develops anisotropy in its distribution function with respect to the magnetic field direction. Motivated by the application to radiation from accretion flows and jets, we explore the effect of temperature anisotropy on synchrotron emission. We derive analytically and provide numerical fits for the polarized synchrotron emission and absorption coefficients for a relativistic bi-Maxwellian plasma (we do not consider Faraday conversion/rotation). Temperature anisotropy can significantly change how the synchrotron emission and absorption coefficients depend on observing angle with respect to the magnetic field. The emitted linear polarization fraction does not depend strongly on anisotropy, while the emitted circular polarization does. We apply our results to black hole imaging of Sgr A* and M87* by ray tracing a GRMHD simulation and assuming that the plasma temperature anisotropy is set by the thresholds of kinetic-scale anisotropy-driven instabilities. We find that the azimuthal asymmetry of the 230 GHz images can change by up to a factor of 3, accentuating (T⊥>T∥) or counteracting (T⊥<T∥) the image asymmetry produced by Doppler beaming. This can change the physical inferences from observations relative to models with an isotropic distribution function, e.g., by allowing for larger inclination between the line of sight and spin direction in Sgr A*. The observed image diameter and the size of the black hole shadow can also vary significantly due to plasma temperature anisotropy. We describe how the anisotropy of the plasma can affect future multifrequency and photon ring observations. We also calculate kinetic anisotropy-driven instabilities (mirror, whistler, and firehose) for relativistically hot plasmas.more » « less
-
Abstract The remarkable connection between black holes and thermodynamics provides the most significant clues that we currently possess to the nature of black holes in a quantum theory of gravity. The key clue is the formula for the entropy of a black hole. I briefly review some recent work that provides an expression for a dynamical correction to the entropy of a black hole and briefly discuss some of the implications of this new formula for entropy.more » « less
-
Key PointsA2 to B incompatible transplantation is not fully practiced in the country, and further policies should encourage centers to perform more blood incompatible transplants.Centers that currently practice A2 to B incompatible transplants should give priority to blood type B patients who are willing to accept an A organ. This will benefit Asian and Black patients. BackgroundThe rate of A2 to B incompatible (ABO-i) kidney transplant continues to be low despite measures in the new kidney allocation system (KAS) to facilitate such transplants. This study shows how the number of ABO-i transplants could increase if KAS policies were used to their fullest extent through a boost in ABO-i priority points. MethodTransplant outcomes were predicted using the Kidney Pancreas Simulated Allocation Model, preloaded with national data of 2010. We used this simulation to compare KAS with a new intervention in which priority equal to cPRA=100 has been given to blood type B candidates who are willing to accept an A blood type organ. ResultsThe number of Black recipients increased by 375 (from 35% of the total recipient population to 38.7%), the number of blood type B Blacks increased by 65 (from 8% of the total recipient population to 9%), and the number of blood type B Black patients receiving blood type A kidneys increased by 49 (from 2% of the total recipient population to 2.5%). The same change occurred for Asians, particularly blood type B Asians (from 0.54% of the total recipient population to 0.7%). The average wait time notably decreased by 27 days for blood type B Black patients. In the proposed scenario, 263 blood type B Black patients received a blood type A organ (2.5% of the total recipient population) while only 181 (1.1%) of such transplants were performed in 2021. These results signify a considerable opportunity loss of ABO-i transplants for Black patients. ConclusionsIf this policy was universally adopted, we would expect to see an overall increase in A2 to B transplantation, but in reality, not all centers perform ABO-i transplantation. Thus, adopting this policy would incentivize other centers to perform more subtyping of A-type kidneys, and it would increase access to organs for blood type B Asian and Black patients in centers where ABO-i transplantation already takes place.more » « less
-
Abstract In this paper, we study the quasi-normal modes (QNMs) of a scalar field in the background of a large class of quantum black holes that can be formed from gravitational collapse of a dust fluid in the framework of effective loop quantum gravity. The loop quantum black holes (LQBHs) are characterized by three free parameters, one of which is the mass parameter, while the other two are purely due to quantum geometric effects. Among these two quantum parameters, one is completely fixed by black hole thermodynamics and its effects are negligible for macroscopic black holes, while the second parameter is completely free (in principle). In the studies of the QNMs of such LQBHs, we pay particular attention to the difference of the QNMs between LQBHs and classical ones, so that they can be observed for the current and forthcoming gravitational wave observations, whereby place the LQBH theory directly under the test of observations.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

