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The goal of this study was to test whether the contractile patterns of two major hindlimb extensors of guinea fowl are altered by load-carrying exercise. We hypothesized that changes in contractile pattern, specifically a decrease in muscle shortening velocity or enhanced stretch activation, would result in a reduction in locomotor energy cost relative to the load carried. We also anticipated that changes in kinematics would reflect underlying changes in muscle strain. Oxygen consumption, muscle activation intensity, and fascicle strain rate were measured over a range of speeds while animals ran unloaded vs. when they carried a trunk load equal to 22% of their body mass. Our results showed that loading produced no significant (P > 0.05) changes in kinematic patterns at any speed. In vivo muscle contractile strain patterns in the iliotibialis lateralis pars postacetabularis and the medial head of the gastrocnemius showed a significant increase in active stretch early in stance (P < 0.01), but muscle fascicle shortening velocity was not significantly affected by load carrying. The rate of oxygen consumption increased by 17% (P < 0.01) during loaded conditions, equivalent to 77% of the relative increase in mass. Additionally, relative increases in EMG intensity (quantified as mean spike amplitude) indicated less than proportional recruitment, consistent with force enhancement via stretch activation, in the proximal iliotibialis lateralis pars postacetabularis; however, a greater than proportional increase in the medial gastrocnemius was observed. As a result, when averaged for the two muscles, EMG intensity increased in direct proportion to the fractional increase in load carried.

A first year Engineering Education doctoral student at Purdue University. Ms. Trina L Fletcher, Purdue University, West LafayetteTrina Fletcher is an Engineering Education doctoral student at Purdue University. Her research focus includes process excellence and total quality management (TQM) methodologies as a way to improve engineering related activities within industry and education. She is also interested in research around recruiting and retaining underrepresented minorities and women in STEM. Prior to Purdue, she spent time in industry holding technical and operations-based roles and has experience with informal STEM community and outreach projects. She holds a BS degree in Industrial Technology and a MS degree in Engineering Management. Hispanic student numbers rose from 3 percent to 13 percent, Asian/Pacific Islander students rose from 2 percent to 6 percent, and the percentage of Black students rose from 9 percent to 14 percent. However, the faculty demographic has not kept pace with the increase in URM enrollment. The percentage of URM faculty has remained flat over the last 20 years, hovering at just a little over 5 percent.Researchers, educators, and practitioners believe that in order for students to succeed academically, they need role models and mentors with whom they can identify. Racial and ethnic diversity has both direct and indirect positive effects on the educational outcomes and experiences of students. The campus climate improves when the diversity of the student population matches that of the faculty. Students from majority groups equally benefit from learning and exchanging ideas in a multicultural environment, offering a wider range of research and a broader representation of alternative perspectives. Therefore, the shift in American demographics over the next ten years changes the question from whether colleges and universities want to support diversity in their faculty distribution to how colleges and universities will accommodate this necessity.Thus, this is a review of the literature on one demographic in engineering academe, the African American woman. African American women are at the intersection of two of the most pervasive prejudices in this country: racism and sexism. This review will unveil some of the unique challenges African American female engineering faculty due to the intersectionality of race and gender. In order, to increase the numbers, the engineering education community must first fully understand the barriers these women face.

Background: Despite the critical role of faculty diversity in the persistence and academic experiences of undergraduate students as well as in the development of engineering innovations, women of color (WoC) faculty are still underrepresented in engineering programs across the United States. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study identifies whether the demographic composition of undergraduate engineering students is correlated with the representation of WoC faculty. It also highlights the institutional-and departmental-level factors that contribute to the race-gender diversification of the engineering professoriate. Design/Method: Informed by organizational demography as the theoretical framework, the methods include linear and logit regression analyses. Data come from the American Society for Engineering Education, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, and the American Community Survey, and include engineering departmental-level observations across 345 institutions over 12 years. Results: Engineering departments that award more bachelor's degrees to women African American/Black undergraduate students are more likely to employ relatively more African American/Black women faculty. This positive relationship is also found among Asian Americans and Hispanics/Latinas. Conclusions: Research findings demonstrate the relationship between engineering undergraduate composition, as well as other departmental-and institutional-level factors, and the prevalence of WoC faculty. The findings highlight important areas for stakeholders and academic administrators to consider when developing strategies and programs to diversify the composition of engineering faculty.

A growing body of literature has examined the underrepresentation of women of color (WOC) in university engineering programs, but its primary focus has been on the experiences of women students of color. Research on WOC in engineering is usually drawn from all of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which does little to illuminate the nuanced experiences of WOC within engineering culture. We sought a primary emphasis on persistence and perseverance rather than the typical examinations on mentoring, inventions, work-life balance, or the challenges that WOC face in engineering faculty environments. There are few studies on how and why women of color persist in academia in the face of the intersection of racism and sexism. Using intersectionality as a theoretical framework and inductive qualitative analyses of interviews with 56 women of color who identified as Asian, Black, Latina, and/or multiracial, we analyzed the sources of support for their persistence. Asking which collective factors support WOC in general and which are unique to each of the racial/ gender groups, we identified three major themes-persistence is aided by (1) supportive colleagues internal to the department or institution, (2) supportive colleagues external to the institution, and(3) the intersectional considerations of group-specific nuances shared by Black, Latina, and Asian women engineering faculty members. The implications suggest women of color thrive in departments with supportive faculty, proactive leadership, and a commitment to professional development. We outline specific racial group interventions that can be beneficial for Asian, Black, and Latina engineering faculty.

We study the effects of access to high school math and science courses on postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrollment and degree attainment using administrative data from Missouri. Our data include more than 140,000 students from 14 cohorts entering the 4-year public university system. The effects of high school course access are identified by exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in course offerings within high schools over time. We find that differential access to high school courses does not affect postsecondary STEM enrollment or degree attainment. Our null results are estimated precisely enough to rule out moderate impacts.

Background Given the importance of engineers to a nation's economy and potential innovation, it is imperative to encourage more students to consider engineering as a college major. Previous studies have identified a broad range of high school experiences and demographic factors associated with engineering major choice; however, these factors have rarely been ranked or ordered by relative importance. Purpose/Hypothesis This study leveraged comprehensive, longitudinal data to identify which high school‐level factors, including high school characteristics and student high school experiences as well as student demographic characteristics and background, rank as most important in terms of predictive power of engineering major choice. Design/Method Using data from a nationally representative survey, the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, and the random forest method, a genre of machine learning, the most important high school‐level factors in terms of predictive power of engineering major choice were ranked. Results Random forest results indicate that student gender is the most important variable predicting engineering major choice, followed by high school math achievement and student beliefs and interests in math and science during high school. Conclusions Gender differences in engineering major choice suggest wider ranging cultural phenomena that need further investigation and systemic interventions. Research findings also highlight two other areas for potential interventions to promote engineering major choice: high school math achievement and beliefs and interests in math and science. Focusing interventions in these areas may lead to an increase in the number of students pursuing engineering.

Doctoral programs in the humanities and humanistic social sciences contend with relatively lower graduation rates and longer duration to degree. While reforming graduate education can include changes to financial aid awards and program requirements, enhancements in the area of advising can also improve student educational experiences and outcomes within existing institutional structures. The frequency of advisor-advisee communications during the dissertation process, as well as the advisor’s attitude toward dissertation completion, influences program duration. Moreover, gender homophily, or same-gender mentorship, is associated with higher graduation probabilities for women doctoral students.