Meta-analysis of Gender Performance Gaps in Undergraduate Natural Science Courses.

To investigate patterns of gender-based performance gaps, we conducted a meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished data collected across 169 undergraduate biology and chemistry courses. While we did not detect an overall gender gap in performance, heterogeneity analyses suggested further analysis was warranted, so we investigated whether attributes of the learning environment impacted performance disparities on the basis of gender. Several factors moderated performance differences, including class size, assessment type, and pedagogy. Specifically, we found evidence that larger classes, reliance on exams, and undisrupted, traditional lecture were associated with lower grades for women. We discuss our results in the context of natural science courses and conclude by making recommendations for instructional practices and future research to promote gender equity.

Optimal foraging behavior and the thermal neutral zone of Peromyscus leucopus during winter: A test using natural and controlled ambient temperatures.

Endotherms foraging at temperatures outside of their thermal neutral zone (TNZ) pay an increased energetic cost. We asked if thermally-induced changes in foraging costs influence quitting harvest rate (QHR) of mice. We predicted that mice foraging during the winter would have a higher QHR in more costly colder conditions. We conducted our study with wild caught Peromyscus leucopus in an enclosure located in West Terre Haute, Indiana. We assayed changes in QHR using the forager's giving up density (GUD), which is the amount of uneaten seeds reaming in a tray after foraging activity. Each night from January 12th to March 13th, we assigned 4 trays as "cold trays" (at ambient temperature), and 4 trays as "hot trays" (trays with a ceramic heat element that increased the temperatures of feeding trays ca. 10-15°C). GUDs (and therfore QHRs) increased as a function of decreasing ambient temperature. Furthermore there was an interaction between tray temperature and ambient temperature; namely, on cool nights mice had lower GUDs in the "hot trays", but on warm nights mice had lower GUDs in the "cold trays". The TNZ for P. leucopus actively foraging during winter may be closer to the environmental average temperature than typically measured in the laboratory. Overall, these results support the idea that QHR is related to an animal's foraging in thermally challenged conditions. We present a unique way of measuring an animal's TNZ in the field using behavioral indicators.

Ectoparasitism and stress hormones: strategy of host exploitation, common host-parasite history and energetics matter.

Parasites are thought to have numerous negative effects on their hosts. These negative effects may be associated with stress in a host. We evaluated the effects of four species of flea ectoparasites (Parapulex chephrenis, Synosternus cleopatrae, Xenopsylla conformis and Xenopsylla ramesis) on non-specific responses of eight species of rodents (Meriones crassus, Gerbillus dasyurus, Gerbillus andersoni, Gerbillus pyramidum, Gerbillus nanus, Acomys cahirinus, Acomys russatus and Mesocricetus auratus) and measured faecal glucocorticoid metabolites concentrations (FGMC) produced by the hosts. We found no effect of body mass of an individual rodent on FGMCs. Parasitism by fleas with a 'stay on the host body' exploitation strategy was associated with higher host FGMCs than parasitism by fleas that spent most of their life 'off-host'. FGMCs among rodents infested by the same flea species were correlated positively with the phylogenetic distance of a given rodent from the principal host of this flea; changes in FGMCs were lower in the host species more closely related to the flea's principal host. Changes in FMGCs of a host while parasitized were correlated with a host's change in body mass, where hosts that lost more body mass had higher FGMCs. Our results suggest that ectoparasitism can be stressful to their hosts. However, the occurrence of parasite-induced stress seems to depend on the identity of both host and parasite species and the evolutionary history of a host-parasite association. To our knowledge, this is the first multispecies study to evaluate the effect of ectoparasites on glucocorticoid hormones in small mammals.