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Economics does not attract as broad or diverse a pool of talent as it could. For example, women comprise less than one-third of economics bachelor's degree recipients, significantly lower than in math or statistics. The authors present a case study of a new introductory economics course that enrolled 400 students, achieved nearly 50-50 gender balance, and was among the highest-rated courses at Harvard. They summarize the course's content and pedagogy, illustrate how this approach differs from traditional courses, and identify elements of the approach that appear to underlie its success: personal connection, real-world exposure, scientific inquiry, career value, and social relevance. They conclude by discussing how these ideas for improving economics instruction could be applied in other courses and tested empirically in future research.

Improved irrigation and fertilization practices, such as reduced applications, are needed to improve the sustainability of container plant production. The objective of this study was to assess growth of Visions astilbe (Astilbe chinensis 'Visions') and Mellow Yellow coneflower (Echinacea purpurea 'Mellow Yellow') grown at two controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) rates (100% or 50% of the medium bag rate) and two volumetric water contents (VWC; 40% and 18%). For coneflower, there were no significant treatment effects for height, growth index, shoot dry weight, or leaf size. There was a significant VWC effect on number of flowers with the 40% treatment having more flowers (5.6) per plant than the 18% treatment (2.7). Shoot dry weight, growth index, and leaf size of astilbe were greater for the 40% VWC treatment than the 18% VWC treatment with no fertilizer rate effect. Astilbe height and number of flowers was not significant. These results indicate that there is a species-specific effect of VWC on growth whereas reduced fertilizer applications are possible for both species without impacting growth. Although a substrate VWC of 18% is likely too low to produce salable plants, a VWC below 40% can potentially be used to support adequate growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the final report of the Task Force on Best Practices for Professional Conduct in Economics. It highlights the development of best practices to improve the professional climate in economics, including recommendations in areas such as conducting research, serving as colleagues, working with students, and leading departments.

The economics profession includes disproportionately few women and members of historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups, relative both to the overall population and to other academic disciplines. This underrepresentation within the field of economics is present at the undergraduate level, continues into the ranks of the academy, and is barely improving over time. It likely hampers the discipline, constraining the range of issues addressed and limiting our collective ability to understand familiar issues from new and innovative perspectives. In this paper, we first present data on the numbers of women and underrepresented minority groups in the profession. We then offer an overview of current research on the reasons for the underrepresentation, highlighting evidence that may be less familiar to economists. We argue that implicit attitudes and institutional practices may be contributing to the underrepresentation of women and minorities at all stages of the pipeline, calling for new types of research and initiatives to attack the problem. We then review evidence on how diversity affects productivity and propose remedial interventions as well as findings on effectiveness. We identify several promising practices, programs, and areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fertilization of a mammalian egg initiates a series of 'zinc sparks' that are necessary to induce the egg-to-embryo transition. Despite the importance of these zinc-efflux events little is known about their origin. To understand the molecular mechanism of the zinc spark we combined four physical approaches that resolve zinc distributions in single cells: a chemical probe for dynamic live-cell fluorescence imaging and a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence microscopy and three-dimensional elemental tomography for high-resolution elemental mapping. We show that the zinc spark arises from a system of thousands of zinc-loaded vesicles, each of which contains, on average, 106 zinc atoms. These vesicles undergo dynamic movement during oocyte maturation and exocytosis at the time of fertilization. The discovery of these vesicles and the demonstration that zinc sparks originate from them provides a quantitative framework for understanding how zinc fluxes regulate cellular processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pygmy fringetree (Chionanthus pygmaeus Small [Oleaceae]) is an endemic and rare Florida species with great potential for use in managed landscapes. Conservation as well as cultivation of the species is dependent on a better understanding of its complex seed dormancy and inherent difficulties with vegetative propagation. This article synthesizes work that has been done with the genus Chionanthus, including our recent work with pygmy fringetree, and affirms the importance of identifying improved propagation and seed storage techniques for the species. Given that pygmy fringetree is native to a fire-dependent ecosystem, the influence of varying levels of smoke and heat, plus the manipulation of other factors such as temperature and plant growth regulators, should be investigated to improve the likelihood of satisfying seed dormancy requirements. Also, based on work done on congeneric species, low temperature conditions combined with low seed moisture content in addition to pericarp removal may result in improved long-term storage conditions of pygmy fringetree seed. In addition, adventitious rooting appears most likely to occur on early to midsummer pygmy fringetree softwood cuttings that have been treated with high levels of auxin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]