Emotion regulation skills as a mediator of STEM teachers' stress, well-being, and burnout.

The teaching profession highly stressful, and teachers are often faced with challenging situations. This is particularly the case in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, which is a uniquely demanding and challenging field. This study examined the role of emotional regulation (ER) skills in STEM teachers' stress, well-being, and burnout. The sample included 165 STEM teachers in middle and high schools who completed standard online questionnaires on ER, stress, well-being, and burnout. They were also asked to comment on three videos depicting authentic mathematical and pedagogical situations. The results indicated that contrary to popular belief, seniority was not linked with levels of stress, difficulties in ER, lower levels of well-being, or higher levels of burnout. A structural equation model and bootstrapping analysis showed teachers' levels of stress predicted their well-being, and this link between stress and well-being was mediated by teachers' level of difficulty in ER. The study highlights the importance of STEM teachers' well-being and suggests the need to reduce stress and burnout by providing tools for teachers to regulate their emotions in the classroom.

Leveraging emotional intelligence to foster proactive climate change adaptation: A study of engineering decision-making.

The impacts of climate change and development present significant challenges and complexities that require new solutions, wise choices, and multi-disciplinary integration. In this context, emotional intelligence (EI) plays a crucial role. However, traditional engineering education and practice overlook the importance of understanding and managing emotions. This research aims to determine the impact of EI as a tool to enhance proactive decision-making and implement sustainable measures within the engineering profession.The study makes three main research contributions. First, it confirms a positive relationship between EI and proactive sustainable decision-making among engineers. This means that engineers with high EI are more likely to consider the impacts of their decisions on various stakeholders and dimensions of sustainability. Second, it suggests that EI can enhance creativity and innovative thinking in engineering, helping engineers to develop effective solutions for challenges related to climate change. Third, the study advocates for incorporating EI training and assessment into engineering curriculums to foster a sustainable and ethical engineering culture. By improving EI, engineers can enhance their interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and emotional management, which in turn can significantly improve teamwork in addressing challenges related to climate change.

What Western Philosophers of Technology Might Learn from Li Bocong's Philosophy of Engineering.

This essay aims to rectify a failure on the part of Western philosophers of technology to attend to the creative philosophical work of Li Bocong at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. After a brief account of Li Bocong's personal contacts with the West and some remarks on his relationship to Marxism, we take up three aspects of his philosophy that can contribute to enlarging Western philosophical thinking about engineering and technology: (1) Li's analysis of engineering as more than design, (2) his argument for the relevance of the sociology of engineering, and (3) his conceptualization of engineering ethics as more than professional ethics.

Instructional Influencers: Teaching Professors as Potential Departmental Change Agents in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

At many research-intensive universities in North America, there is a disproportionate loss of minoritized undergraduate students from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors. Efforts to confront this diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenge, such as faculty adoption of evidenced-based instructional approaches that promote student success, have been slow. Instructional and pedagogical change efforts at the academic department level have been demonstrated to be effective at enacting reform. One potential strategy is to embed change agent individuals within STEM departments that can drive change efforts. This study seeks to assess whether tenure-track, teaching-focused faculty housed in STEM departments are perceived as influential on the instructional and pedagogical domains of their colleagues. To answer this, individuals across five STEM departments at large, research-intensive campuses identified faculty who were influential upon six domains of their instruction and pedagogy. Social network analysis of individuals in these departments revealed heterogeneity across the instructional domains. Some, like the teaching strategies network, are highly connected and involve the majority of the department; while others, like the DEI influence network, comprise a significantly smaller population of faculty. Importantly, we demonstrate that tenure-track, teaching-focused faculty are influential across all domains of instruction, but are disproportionately so in the sparsely populated DEI influence networks.

The Role of Engineering Ethics in Mitigating Corruption in Infrastructure Systems Delivery.

Indications that corruption mitigation in infrastructure systems delivery can be effective are found in the literature. However, there is an untapped opportunity to further enhance the efficacy of existing corruption mitigation strategies by placing them explicitly within the larger context of engineering ethics, and relevant policy statements, guidelines, codes and manuals published by international organizations. An effective matching of these formal statements on ethics to infrastructure systems delivery facilitates the identification of potential corruption hotspots and thus help establish or strengthen institutional mechanisms that address corruption. This paper reviews professional codes of ethics, and relevant literature on corruption mitigation in the context of civil engineering infrastructure development, as a platform for building a structure that connects ethical tenets and the mitigation strategies. The paper assesses corruption mitigation strategies against the background of the fundamental canons of practice in civil engineering ethical codes. As such, the paper's assessment is grounded in the civil engineer's ethical responsibilities (to society, the profession, and peers) and principles (such as safety, health, welfare, respect, and honesty) that are common to professional codes of ethics in engineering practice. Addressing corruption in infrastructure development continues to be imperative for national economic and social development, and such exigency is underscored by the sheer scale of investments in infrastructure development in any country and the billions of dollars lost annually through corruption and fraud.

Experimental study on the failure process and modes of loess spoil slope induced by rainfall and engineering disturbance.

In this paper, indoor model tests were conducted using image analysis, pore pressure, and displacement measurement methods to investigate the failure evolution process and modes of loess spoil slopes with various components under the influence of rainfall and artificial excavation. The results of the experiments reveal that, under the action of rainfall, there are two types of cracks-to-failure modes for pure loess spoil slopes. One involves the formation of a large gully through the dominant channel, while the other is characterized by step-by-step retreating soil damage between cracks. The failure exhibits three distinct stages, and after failure, the slope angle is relatively large (>45°). The process of rainfall-induced destruction affecting loess spoil containing 25% coarse-grained content similarly unfolds in three stages, ultimately resulting in the formation of a regional landslide. This landslide typically encompasses a broader damage range compared to pure loess spoil, albeit with a shallower depth of damage. After the landslide stops and stabilizes, a tiny slope (45°) is created (<45°). The excavation at the toe of the slope induces loess spoil damage in a progressive multi-stage receding manner. This study provides a reference and basis for disaster prevention and warning of spoiled ground in loess areas.

Comparing First-Year Engineering Student Conceptions of Ethical Decision-Making to Performance on Standardized Assessments of Ethical Reasoning.

The Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT-2) and Engineering Ethical Reasoning Instrument (EERI) are designed to measure ethical reasoning of general (DIT-2) and engineering-student (EERI) populations. These tools-and the DIT-2 especially-have gained wide usage for assessing the ethical reasoning of undergraduate students. This paper reports on a research study in which the ethical reasoning of first-year undergraduate engineering students at multiple universities was assessed with both of these tools. In addition to these two instruments, students were also asked to create personal concept maps of the phrase "ethical decision-making." It was hypothesized that students whose instrument scores reflected more postconventional levels of moral development and more sophisticated ethical reasoning skills would likewise have richer, more detailed concept maps of ethical decision-making, reflecting their deeper levels of understanding of this topic and the complex of related concepts. In fact, there was no significant correlation between the instrument scores and concept map scoring, suggesting that the way first-year students conceptualize ethical decision making does not predict the way they behave when performing scenario-based ethical reasoning (perhaps more situated). This disparity indicates a need to more precisely quantify engineering ethical reasoning and decision making, if we wish to inform assessment outcomes using the results of such quantitative analyses.

Mining LDA topics on construction engineering change risks based on graded evidence.

Engineering change (EC) risk may negatively impact project schedule, cost, quality, and stakeholder satisfaction. However, existing methods for managing EC risk have certain shortcomings in evidence selection and do not adequately consider the quality and reliability of evidence associated with EC risks. Evidence grading plays a crucial role in ensuring the reliability of decisions related to EC risks and can provide essential scientific and reliability support for decision-making. In order to explore the potential risks associated with architectural engineering changes (ECs) and identify the most significant ones, this study proposed a methodology that combines evidence grading theory and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic analysis means. Initially, the evidence-based grading theory served as the creation of a grading table for evidence sources related to EC risk. Specifically, we categorized the evidence sources into three levels based on their credibility. Subsequently, we selected evidence with higher credibility levels for textual analysis, utilizing the LDA topic model. This involved analyzing regulations, industry standards, and judgment documents related to EC, ultimately identifying the themes associated with EC risks. In addition, by combining EC risk topics with relevant literature, we identified factors influencing EC risks. Subsequently, we designed an expert survey questionnaire to determine the key risks and important risk topics associated with potential risks. The results show that by synthesizing information from both Class A and B evidence, a total of five prominent risk themes were identified, namely contract, technology, funds, personnel, and other hazards. Among them, the technical risk has the highest value, so it implies that the risk is the most important, and the key risks are engineering design defects, errors, and omissions.

An EEG study on artistic and engineering mindsets in students in creative processes.

This study aims to take higher-education students as examples to understand and compare artistic and engineering mindsets in creative processes using EEG. Fifteen Master of Fine Arts (MFA) visual arts and fifteen Master of Engineering (MEng) design engineering students were recruited and asked to complete alternative uses tasks wearing an EEG headset. The results revealed that (1) the engineering-mindset students responded to creative ideas faster than artistic-mindset students. (2) Although in creative processes both artistic- and engineering-mindset students showed Theta, Alpha, and Beta wave activity, the active brain areas are slightly different. The active brain areas of artistic-mindset students in creative processes are mainly in the frontal and occipital lobes; while the whole brain (frontal, oriental, temporal, and occipital lobes) was active in creative processes of engineering-mindset students. (3) During the whole creative process, the brain active level of artistic-mindset students was higher than that of engineering-mindset students. The results of this study fills gaps in existing research where only active brain areas and band waves were compared between artistic- and engineering-mindset students in creative processes. For quick thinking in terms of fluency of generating creative ideas, engineering students have an advantage in comparison to those from the visual arts. Also, the study provided more evidence that mindset can affect the active levels of the brain areas. Finally, this study provides educators with more insights on how to stimulate students' creative ability.

Overcoming gender bias in STEM.

Despite prevalent diversity and inclusion programs in STEM, gender biases and stereotypes persist across educational and professional settings. Recognizing this enduring bias is crucial for achieving transformative change on gender equity and can help orient policy toward more effective strategies to address ongoing disparities.

Mentorship Interventions in Postgraduate Medical and STEM Settings: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Mentorship is critical to success in postgraduate science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM) settings. As such, the purpose of this study is to comprehensively explore the state of mentorship interventions in postgraduate STEMM settings to identify novel practices and future research directions. The selection criteria for reviewed articles included: 1) published between 2002 and 2022, 2) peer-reviewed, 3) in English, 4) postgraduate mentees, 5) a program where mentorship is a significant, explicit focus, and 6) a description of mentee outcomes related to the mentorship intervention. Overall, 2583 articles were screened, and 109 articles were reviewed. RESULTS: Most postgraduate STEMM mentorship intervention studies lack strong evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, with only 5.5% of articles designed as randomized controlled trials. Most mentorship interventions (45.6%) were created for faculty, and few (4%) were for postdoctoral researchers. Also, only 18.8% of interventions focused on underrepresented groups in STEMM. Most interventions (53.7%) prescribed a dyadic structure, and there was more mentorship training for mentors than mentees. CONCLUSION: Overall, these findings identify gaps in mentorship interventions and provide step-by-step guidance for future interventions, including a consideration for underrepresented groups and postdoctoral scholars, robust mentorship training, and more randomized controlled trials.

A multimodal material route planning problem considering key processes at work zones.

With the continuous development of large-scale engineering projects such as construction projects, relief support, and large-scale relocation in various countries, engineering logistics has attracted much attention. This paper addresses a multimodal material route planning problem (MMRPP), which considers the transportation of engineering material from suppliers to the work zones using multiple transport modes. Due to the overall relevance and technical complexity of engineering logistics, we introduce the key processes at work zones to generate a transport solution, which is more realistic for various real-life applications. We propose a multi-objective multimodal transport route planning model that minimizes the total transport cost and the total transport time. The model by using the ε - constraint method that transforms the objective function of minimizing total transportation cost into a constraint, resulting in obtaining pareto optimal solutions. This method makes up for the lack of existing research on the combination of both engineering logistics and multimodal transportation, after which the feasibility of the model and algorithm is verified by examples. The results show that the model solution with the introduction of the key processes at work zones produces more time-efficient and less time-consuming route planning results, and that the results obtained using the ε - constraint method are more reliable than the traditional methods for solving multi-objective planning problems and are more in line with the decision maker's needs.

Ten recommendations for hosting a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) journal club.

Despite advances and social progress, the exclusion of diverse groups in academia, especially science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, across the US and Europe persists, resulting in the underrepresentation of diverse people in higher education. There is extensive literature about theory, observation, and evidence-based practices that can help create a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse learning environment. In this article, we propose the implementation of a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) journal club as a strategic initiative to foster education and promote action towards making academia a more equitable institution. By creating a space for people to engage with DEIJ theories* and strategize ways to improve their learning environment, we hope to normalize the practice and importance of analyzing academia through an equity lens. Guided by restorative justice principles, we offer 10 recommendations for fostering community cohesion through education and mutual understanding. This approach underscores the importance of appropriate action and self-education in the journey toward a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just academic environment. *Authors' note: We understand that "DEIJ" is a multidisciplinary organizational framework that relies on numerous fields of study, including history, sociology, philosophy, and more. We use this term to refer to these different fields of study for brevity purposes.

A review of undergraduate research programs aimed at underrepresented students.

It is well-understood that the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have unique challenges that discourage recruiting and retaining underrepresented minorities. Research programs aimed at undergraduates have arisen as a critical mechanism for fostering innovation and addressing the challenges faced by underrepresented minorities. Here, we review various undergraduate research programs designed to provide exposure to undergraduates, with a focus on underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines. We provide insight into selected programs' objectives, key features, potential limitations, and outcomes. We also offer recommendations for future improvements of each research program, particularly in the context of mentorship. These programs range from broad-reaching initiatives (e.g., Leadership Alliance) to more specific programs targeting underrepresented students. By offering a nuanced understanding of each program's structure, we seek to provide a brief overview of the landscape of diversity-focused STEM initiatives and a guide on how to run a research program effectively.

Australia II: A Case Study in Engineering Ethics.

Australia II became the first foreign yacht to win the America's Cup in 1983. The boat had a revolutionary wing keel and a better underwater hull form. In official documents, Ben Lexcen is credited with the design. He is also listed as the sole inventor of the wing keel in a patent application submitted on February 5, 1982. However, as reported in New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, and Professional Boatbuilder, the wing keel was in fact designed by engineer Peter van Oossanen at the Netherlands Ship Model Basin in Wageningen, assisted by Dr. Joop Slooff at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam. Based on telexes, letters, drawings, and other documents preserved in his personal archive, this paper presents van Oossanen's account of how the revolutionary wing keel was designed. This is followed by an ethical analysis by Martin Peterson, in which he applies the American NSPE and Dutch KIVI codes of ethics to the information provided by van Oossanen. The NSPE and KIVI codes give conflicting advice about the case, and it is not obvious which document is most relevant. This impasse is resolved by applying a method of applied ethics in which similarity-based reasoning is extended to cases that are not fully similar. The key idea, presented in Peterson's book The Ethics of Technology (Peterson, The ethics of technology: A geometric analysis of five moral principles, Oxford University Press, 2017), is to use moral paradigm cases as reference points for constructing a "moral map".

The Value of Support: STEM Intervention Programs Impact Student Persistence and Belonging.

In response to unwaveringly high attrition from STEM pathways, STEM Intervention Programs (SIPs) support STEM students in effort to increase retention. Using mixed methods (survey and focus groups), we studied students at one university who were either supported or unsupported by SIPs to understand how students may differ in experiences believed to contribute to STEM persistence. We evaluated: sense of belonging, scientific self-efficacy, scientific community values, scientific identity, and STEM involvement. The enrollment status of students two and a half years postsurvey was also tracked. SIP students reported significantly higher science identity and sense of belonging and were more involved in STEM-related activities than counterparts unsupported by SIPs. Differences in these measures were correlated with race/ethnicity, college generation status, and age. Notably, SIP students had higher odds of persisting in STEM than students not supported by SIPs. Focus group data provide additional meaning to the measured survey constructs and revealed nuanced qualitative differences between SIP and non-SIP student experiences. Overall, being involved in a SIP at our institution trends positively with theoretical models that explain STEM student persistence. SIPs have the potential to provide and/or facilitate meaningful and critical support, and students without those intentional supports may be left behind.

Mentorship for Transfer Student Success in STEM Research: Mentor Approaches and Reflections.

Mentorship has been widely recognized as an effective means to promote student learning and engagement in undergraduate research experiences. However, little work exists for understanding different mentors' perceived approaches to mentorship, including mentorship of students from backgrounds and educational trajectories not well represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Transfer students, in particular, face unique trajectories in their pursuit of research opportunities, yet few studies investigate how mentors describe their approaches to supporting these students. Using semistructured interviews, this study examines how mentors approach mentoring students from diverse backgrounds as research trainees, with an emphasis on transfer students. First, using phenomenography as an analytical approach, we identified four categories describing variations in how mentors reflected upon or accounted for the transfer student identity in their approaches. We find that research mentors vary in their understanding and exposure to the transfer student identity and may have preconceived notions of the transfer student experience. Second, we present vignettes to illustrate how mentors' approaches to the transfer student identity may relate or diverge from their general approaches to mentoring students from different backgrounds and identities. The emerging findings have implications for developing effective mentorship strategies and training mentors to support transfer students.

Technological advances and challenges of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) application in road engineering-a bibliometric analysis from 2000 to 2022.

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is a valuable material that can be recycled and reused in road engineering to reduce environmental impact, resource utilization, and economic costs. However, the application of RAP in road engineering presents both opportunities and challenges. This study visually analyzes the knowledge background, research status, and latest knowledge structure of literature related to RAP using scientific metric methods such as VOSviewer and Citespace. The Web of Science (WoS) core collection database identified 2963 research publications from 2000 to 2022. Collaborative networks between highly cited references, journals, authors, academic institutions, countries, and funding organizations are analyzed in this study, along with a co-occurrence analysis of keywords for the RAP research publications. Results showed that the USA has long been a leader in RAP research, China surpassed the USA in annual publication output in 2019, increasing from 2 publications in 2002 to 177 publications in 2022, and has made significant investments in technological aspects. Chang'an University ranked first in total publication output (131 publications, 4.4%). Current major research themes include road performance, recycling technology, regeneration mechanisms, and the life cycle assessment of RAP. In addition, based on cluster analysis of keywords, text content analysis, and SWOT analysis, this study also discusses RAP's challenges and future development directions in road engineering. These findings provide scholars with valuable information to gain insight into technological advances and challenges in the field of RAP.