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Expanding the talent pipeline of students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM has been a priority in the United States for decades. However, potential solutions to increase the number of such students in STEM academic pathways, measured using longitudinal randomized controlled trials in real-world contexts, have been limited. Here, we expand on an earlier investigation that reported results from a longitudinal field experiment in which undergraduate female students (N = 150) interested in engineering at college entry were randomly assigned a female peer mentor in engineering, a male peer mentor in engineering, or not assigned a mentor for their first year of college. While an earlier article presented findings from participants’ first two years of college, the current article reports the same participants’ academic experiences for each year in college through college graduation and one year post-graduation. Compared to the male peer mentor and no mentor condition, having a female peer mentor was associated with a significant improvement in participants’ psychological experiences in engineering, aspirations to pursue postgraduate engineering degrees, and emotional well-being. It was also associated with participants’ success in securing engineering internships and retention in STEM majors through college graduation. In sum, a low-cost, short peer mentoring intervention demonstrates benefits in promoting female students’ success in engineering from college entry, through one-year post-graduation.

 

High altitude native populations exhibit physiological adaptations to environmental hypoxia. It has been hypothesized that two of these populations, Andeans and Tibetans, demonstrate distinct adaptive modes with the former characterized by increased blood oxygen content, and the latter characterized by increased blood flow. To investigate this hypothesis, we recruited two groups of healthy adults (ages 18-35) with highland ancestry who were born and currently reside at high altitude. The groups were: Andean Quechuas recruited in Cerro de Pasco, Peru (AND, n = 301) and Tibetan Sherpas recruited in Pheriche, Nepal (SHP, n = 64). Participants were tested in field laboratories using identical equipment and protocols, at nearly identical altitudes (4,330m and 4,371m, respectively). We assessed a wide variety of physiological variables at rest, submaximal exercise, and maximal exercise. We found that although some phenotypes aligned with the above hypothesis, the majority did not. For example, as predicted, AND displayed significantly lower (p<0.001) ventilatory equivalents for oxygen (VE/VO2) at rest. However, this trend reversed at maximal exercise, with AND displaying significantly higher (p<0.001) VE/VO2 than SHP. Further, contrary to the above hypothesis, we found no statistically significant differences in flow-mediated dilation between the groups. These results suggest that the adaptive modes of these populations are perhaps not as distinct as previously supposed. Given that this hypothesis was formulated on the basis of data taken at rest, our data highlights the importance of assessing physiology both at rest and exercise, to gain a more complete understanding of adaptation to high altitude. 

The human spleen contracts in response to stress‐induced catecholamine secretion, resulting in a temporary rise in haemoglobin concentration ([Hb]). Recent findings highlighted enhanced splenic response to exercise at high altitude in Sherpa, possibly due to a blunted splenic response to hypoxia. To explore the potential blunted splenic contraction in Sherpas at high altitude, we examined changes in spleen volume during hyperoxic breathing, comparing acclimatized Sherpa with acclimatized individuals of lowland ancestry. Our study included 14 non‐Sherpa (7 female) residing at altitude for a mean continuous duration of 3 months and 46 Sherpa (24 female) with an average of 4 years altitude exposure. Participants underwent a hyperoxic breathing test at altitude (4300 m; barrometric pressure = ∼430 torr;  = ∼90 torr). Throughout the test, we measured spleen volume using ultrasonography and monitored oxygen saturation (). During rest, Sherpa exhibited larger spleens (226 ± 70 mL) compared to non‐Sherpa (165 ± 34 mL;P < 0.001; effect size (ES) = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.3–1.6). In response to hyperoxia, non‐Sherpa demonstrated 22 ± 12% increase in spleen size (35 ± 17 mL, 95% CI: 20.7–48.9;P < 0.001; ES = 1.8, 95% CI: 0.93–2.66), while spleen size remained unchanged in Sherpa (−2 ± 13 mL, 95% CI: −2.4 to 7.3;P = 0.640; ES = 0.18, 95% CI: −0.10 to 0.47). Our findings suggest that Sherpa and non‐Sherpas of lowland ancestry exhibit distinct variations in spleen volume during hyperoxia at high altitude, potentially indicating two distinct splenic functions. In Sherpa, this phenomenon may signify a diminished splenic response to altitude‐related hypoxia at rest, potentially contributing to enhanced splenic contractions during physical stress. Conversely, non‐Sherpa experienced a transient increase in spleen size during hyperoxia, indicating an active tonic contraction, which may influence early altitude acclimatization in lowlanders by raising [Hb].

 

We investigated whether stereotypes linking Black men and Black boys with violence and criminality generalize to Black women and Black girls. In Experiments 1 and 2, non-Black participants completed sequential-priming tasks wherein they saw faces varying in race, age, and gender before categorizing danger-related objects or words. Experiment 3 compared task performance across non-Black and Black participants. Results revealed that (a) implicit stereotyping of Blacks as more dangerous than Whites emerged across target age, target gender, and perceiver race, with (b) a similar magnitude of racial bias across adult and child targets and (c) a smaller magnitude for female than male targets. Evidence for age bias and gender bias also emerged whereby (d) across race, adult targets were more strongly associated with danger than were child targets, and (e) within Black (but not White) targets, male targets were more strongly associated with danger than were female targets.