Nanoporous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membranes are promising host systems for confinement of condensed matter. Characterizing their structure and composition is thus of primary importance for studying the behavior of confined objects. Here a novel methodology to extract quantitative information on the structure and composition of well defined AAO membranes by combining small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging is reported. In particular, (i) information about the pore hexagonal arrangement is extracted from SEM analysis, (ii) the best SANS experimental conditions to perform reliable measurements are determined and (iii) a detailed fitting method is proposed, in which the probed length in the fitting model is a critical parameter related to the longitudinal pore ordering. Finally, to validate this strategy, it is applied to characterize AAOs prepared under different conditions and it is shown that the experimental SANS data can be fully reproduced by a core/shell model, indicating the existence of a contaminated shell. This original approach, based on a detailed and complete description of the SANS data, can be applied to a variety of confining media and will allow the further investigation of condensed matter under confinement.

Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) coupled with computed tomography (CT) has enabled the visualization of the spatial distribution of nanostructures in thin films. 2D GISAXS images are obtained by scanning along the direction perpendicular to the X-ray beam at each rotation angle. Because the intensities at the q positions contain nanostructural information, the reconstructed CT images individually represent the spatial distributions of this information (e.g. size, shape, surface, characteristic length). These images are reconstructed from the intensities acquired at angular intervals over 180°, but the total measurement time is prolonged. This increase in the radiation dosage can cause damage to the sample. One way to reduce the overall measurement time is to perform a scanning GISAXS measurement along the direction perpendicular to the X-ray beam with a limited interval angle. Using filtered back-projection (FBP), CT images are reconstructed from sinograms with limited interval angles from 3 to 48° (FBP-CT images). However, these images are blurred and have a low image quality. In this study, to optimize the CT image quality, total variation (TV) regularization is introduced to minimize sinogram image noise and artifacts. It is proposed that the TV method can be applied to downsampling of sinograms in order to improve the CT images in comparison with the FBP-CT images.

BornAgain is a free and open-source multi-platform software framework for simulating and fitting X-ray and neutron reflectometry, off-specular scattering, and grazing-incidence small-angle scattering (GISAS). This paper concentrates on GISAS. Support for reflectometry and off-specular scattering has been added more recently, is still under intense development and will be described in a later publication. BornAgain supports neutron polarization and magnetic scattering. Users can define sample and instrument models through Python scripting. A large subset of the functionality is also available through a graphical user interface. This paper describes the software in terms of the realized non-functional and functional requirements. The web site https://www.bornagainproject.org/ provides further documentation.

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) was recently applied to the in situ and operando study of the charge/discharge process in Li-ion battery full-cells based on a pouch cell design. Here, this work is continued in a half-cell with a graphite electrode cycled versus a metallic lithium counter electrode, in a study conducted on the SANS-1 instrument of the neutron source FRM II at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum in Garching, Germany. It is confirmed that the SANS integrated intensity signal varies as a function of graphite lithiation, and this variation can be explained by changes in the squared difference in scattering length density between graphite and the electrolyte. The scattering contrast change upon graphite lithiation/delithiation calculated from a multi-phase neutron scattering model is in good agreement with the experimentally measured values. Due to the finite coherence length, the observed SANS contrast, which mostly stems from scattering between the (lithiated) graphite and the electrolyte phase, contains local information on the mesoscopic scale, which allows the development of lithiated phases in the graphite to be followed. The shape of the SANS signal curve can be explained by a core–shell model with step-wise (de)lithiation from the surface. Here, for the first time, X-ray diffraction, SANS and theory are combined to give a full picture of graphite lithiation in a half-cell. The goal of this contribution is to confirm the correlation between the integrated SANS data obtained during operando measurements of an Li-ion half-cell and the electrochemical processes of lithiation/delithiation in micro-scaled graphite particles. For a deeper understanding of this correlation, modelling and experimental data for SANS and results from X-ray diffraction were taken into account.

Clays and soils produce strong small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) because they contain large numbers of nanoparticles, namely allophane and ferrihydrite. These nanoparticles are amorphous and have approximately spherical shape with a size of around 3–10 nm. The weight ratios of these nanoparticles will affect the properties of the clays and soils. However, the nanoparticles in clays and soils are not generally quantified and are sometimes ignored because there is no standard method to quantify them. This paper describes a method to quantify nanoparticles in clays and soils with SAXS. This is achieved by deriving normalized SAXS intensities from unit weight of the sample, which are not affected by absorption. By integrating the normalized SAXS intensities over the reciprocal space, one obtains a value that is proportional to the weight ratio of the nanoparticles, proportional to the square of the difference of density between the nanoparticles and the liquid surrounding the nanoparticles, and inversely proportional to the density of the nanoparticles. If the density of the nanoparticles is known, the weight ratio of the nanoparticles can be calculated from the SAXS intensities. The density of nanoparticles was estimated from the chemical composition of the sample. Nanoparticles in colloidal silica, silica gels, mixtures of silica gel and α-aluminium oxide, and synthetic clays have been quantified with the integral SAXS method. The results show that the errors of the weight ratios of nanoparticles are around 25% of the weight ratio. It is also shown that some natural clays contain large fractions of nanoparticles; montmorillonite clay from the Mikawa deposit, pyrophillite clay from the Shokozan deposit and kaolinite clay from the Kanpaku deposit contain 25 (7), 10 (2) and 19 (5) wt% nanoparticles, respectively, where errors are shown in parentheses.

This article presents IMSIM, an application to simulate two-dimensional small-angle X-ray scattering patterns and, further, one-dimensional profiles from biological macromolecules in solution. IMSIM implements a statistical approach yielding two-dimensional images in TIFF, CBF or EDF format, which may be readily processed by existing data-analysis pipelines. Intensities and error estimates of one-dimensional patterns obtained from the radial average of the two-dimensional images exhibit the same statistical properties as observed with actual experimental data. With initial input on an absolute scale, [cm−1]/c[mg ml−1], the simulated data frames may also be scaled to absolute scale such that the forward scattering after subtraction of the background is proportional to the molecular weight of the solute. The effects of changes of concentration, exposure time, flux, wavelength, sample–detector distance, detector dimensions, pixel size, and the mask as well as incident beam position can be considered for the simulation. The simulated data may be used in method development, for educational purposes, and also to determine the most suitable beamline setup for a project prior to the application and use of the actual beamtime. IMSIM is available as part of the ATSAS software package (3.0.0) and is freely available for academic use (http://www.embl-hamburg.de/biosaxs/download.html).

By using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) reinforced by scanning electron microscopy, the fine structure of catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells has been investigated. The experimental data resulting from contrast variation with mixed light and heavy water (H2O/D2O) are well described by a core–shell model with fluctuations in concentration between water and Nafion.

This paper reports on the two-scale fractal structure of chromatin organization in the nucleus of the HeLa cell.

An attempt has been made to combine small-angle scattering of X-rays or neutrons with scanning electron microscopy in reciprocal space, in order to establish a structural analysis method covering a wide range of sizes from micro- to macro-scales.

Instrumentation for sub-millisecond time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering measurements at NIST is described and applied to the reorientation dynamics of elongated hematite nanoparticles.

The sasPDF method, an extension of the atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis to the small-angle scattering (SAS) regime, is presented. The method is applied to characterize the structure of nanoparticle assemblies with different levels of structural order.

A portable small-angle X-ray scattering instrument with geometrical dimensions suitable for installation at the D22 instrument was designed and constructed for simultaneous small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering experiments at ILL.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has opened a new Public Observatory that contains a 16-inch, 3,000-pound Boller and Chivens telescope, on loan from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Through this powerful telescope, museum visitors can now observe the sun (with a special filter), the moon and the brighter stars and planets, such as Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, during daylight hours. Funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.

The post The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum opens new Public Observatory on the Mall in Washington, D.C. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Birds do it. Bees do it. And in a laboratory in northern California, scientists using bumblebees recently figured out the best way to measure it--vertical lift!

The post Laboratory tests reveal precise way to measure vertical lift in bumblebees and other small insects and birds appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Bats living in the dense urban area of Panama City, the scientists learned, represent just a small fraction of the roughly 25 species of high-flying insectivorous bats found in Panama’s rainforests.

The post Only large, fast-flying bats can handle life in the big city; small bats can’t adapt appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The National Zoo has received a breeding pair of Asian small-clawed otters at Asia Trail for the first time. Mac, a three-year-old male from the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Wash., and Smidge, a five-year-old female from the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, arrived in April and are now in their exhibit.

The post Keepers are optimistic about Zoo’s new breeding pair of Asian small-clawed otters appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Small monkey groups may win territorial disputes against larger groups because some members of the larger, invading groups avoid aggressive encounters.

The post Members of small monkey groups more likely to fight, researchers find appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Small migratory male birds that winter in a stressful environment age faster than those that winter in a high-quality habitat, according to research stemming from […]

The post Small migratory birds age faster in stressful places, study reveals appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Stars form when gravity pulls together material within giant clouds of gas and dust. But gravity isn’t the only force at work. Both turbulence and […]

The post As Stars Form, Magnetic Fields Influence Regions Big and Small appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the first time, researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Migratory Bird Center have accurately tracked small migratory ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla) to their tropical […]

The post Miniaturized GPS Tags Allow Tracking of Small Songbirds for first time appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Kristina Drizyte-Miller, Jing Chen, Hong Cao, Micah B. Schott, and Mark A. McNiven

Epithelial cells such as liver-resident hepatocytes rely heavily on the Rab family of small GTPases to perform membrane trafficking events that dictate cell physiology and metabolism. Not surprisingly, disruption of several Rabs can manifest in metabolic diseases or cancer. Rab32 is expressed in many secretory epithelial cells but its role in cellular metabolism is virtually unknown. In this study, we find that Rab32 associates with lysosomes and regulates proliferation and cell size of Hep3B hepatoma and HeLa cells. Specifically, we identify that Rab32 supports mTORC1 signaling under basal and amino acid stimulated conditions. Consistent with inhibited mTORC1, an increase in nuclear TFEB localization and lysosome biogenesis is also observed in Rab32-depleted cells. Finally, we find that Rab32 interacts with mTOR kinase and that loss of Rab32 reduces the association of mTOR and mTORC1 pathway proteins with lysosomes, suggesting that Rab32 regulates lysosomal mTOR trafficking. In summary, these findings suggest that Rab32 functions as a novel regulator of cellular metabolism through supporting mTORC1 signaling.

The small-whorled pogonia is a plain, endangered orchid that inhabits the hollows of Virginia, and survives only in collaboration with a particular type of fungus […]

The post The small whorled pogonia appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Small-Whorled Pogonia: Endangered Orchid on the Edge. The small-whorled pogonia (Isotria medeoloides) is endangered 16 of the 20 states where it still appears, earning it the title "rarest orchid east of the Mississippi."

The post Small-Whorled Pogonia: Endangered Orchid on the Edge appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Finding a mouse in your morning coffee might give you an unwelcome jolt, but there’s a strong connection between small mammals, birds and the plantations […]

The post Of mice and macchiato: Bird Friendly coffee gives a paw-up to small mammals as well appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This article aims to encourage practitioners, young and seasoned, by enhancing their structure-determination toolboxes with a selection of tips and tricks on recognizing and handling aspects of data collection, structure modelling and refinement, and the interpretation of results.

The development of antiviral strategies requires a clear understanding of the principles that control the protein arrangements in viral shells. Considered here are those capsids that violate the paradigmatic Caspar and Klug (CK) model, and it is shown that the important structural features of such anomalous shells from the Picobirnaviridae, Flaviviridae and Leviviridae families can be revealed by models in the form of spherical icosahedral packings of equivalent rhombic structural units (SUs). These SUs are composed of protein dimers forming the investigated capsids which, as shown here, are based on the rhombic triacontahedron (RT) geometry. How to modify the original CK approach in order to make it compatible with the considered rhombic tessellations of a sphere is also discussed. Analogies between capsids self-assembled from dimers and trimers are demonstrated. This analysis reveals the principles controlling the localization of receptor proteins (which recognize the host cell) on the capsid surface.

In small-molecule single-crystal structure determination, we now have at our disposal an inspiring range of fantastic diffractometers with better, brighter sources, and faster, more sensitive detectors. Faster and more powerful computers provide integrated tools and software with impressive graphical user interfaces. Yet these tools can lead to the temptation not to check the work thoroughly and one can too easily overlook tell-tale signs that something might be amiss in a structure determination; validation with checkCIF is not always revealing. This article aims to encourage practitioners, young and seasoned, by enhancing their structure-determination toolboxes with a selection tips and tricks on recognizing and handling aspects that one should constantly be aware of. Topics include a pitfall when setting up data collections, the usefulness of reciprocal lattice layer images, processing twinned data, tips for disorder modelling and the use of restraints, ensuring hydrogen atoms are added to a model correctly, validation beyond checkCIF, and the derivation and interpretation of the final results.

Kristina Drizyte-Miller
Apr 15, 2020; 0:jcs.236661v1-jcs.236661
Articles

Radon in household water supplies increases peoples overall exposure to the gas, but waterborne radon poses few risks to human health, says a new report by a committee of the National Research Council.

The emergence of inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) that operate without a human pilot, commonly known as drones, has led to adversarial groups threatening deployed U.S. forces, especially infantry units.

Frank Romero with one of his French paintings, in his home in the South of France. But every year, he and his wife Sharon throw a big studio sale for Christmas, and you're invited.; Credit: John Rabe

"Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Auntie Mame.

Your calendar is filling up, but here are four holiday events you'll want to make room for:

Every year, pioneering Chicano artist Frank Romero and his wife Sharon throw a big studio sale that includes works by a wide group of artists, and a lot of food and drink. It's just as much a party as a sales event, and Frank and the other artists are always there to meet and greet. And now that the couple is spending more time at their home in France, it's a chance for their old friends to catch up with them, so who knows who you'll see from L.A.'s arts community.

RELATED: See Frank's new works - French scenes with an East LA flavor

The Romero Studio annual Christmas party and sale is Saturday, Dec. 6, 6-10pm; and Sunday, Dec. 7, 1-5pm, at Plaza de la Raza, Boathouse Gallery, 3540 North Mission Rd., LA CA 90031 (in Lincoln Park across from the DMV — which BTW is a very good DMV).

Then, on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 4:30pm,  it's the Advent Procession of Lessons and Carols, at St. James Episcopal Church, which a friend describes as "one of the truly beautiful choral events of the season," and the highlight of the Choir of St. James' season. It's free and it's at St. James' Episcopal Church in Koreatown (3903 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90010).
 

"Auntie Mame," the 1958 Rosalind Russell movie with more quotable quips than a weekend getaway with Oscar Wilde, has become something of a Christmas tradition. It's screening at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 7:30. As delightful as this movie is any day of the week on your TV at home, this is a film to be seen in 35mm with a theater full of people reacting to every bon mot and heart-touching moment.

GO INSIDE: The Disney Hall organ, "Hurricane Mama," turns 10

Last year, my husband and I blindly went to Disney Hall for the Holiday Organ Spectacular. We expected some music and a little fun. But it really was spectacular. It's back this year, on Friday, Dec. 19, with organist David Higgs leading the evening from the console of Hurricane Mama.

If you've never seen or heard the organ in person, this is a great evening because Higgs — a teacher as well as master organist — gives you a guided tour of every stop, and every mood the organ can produce, from cathedral-loud to country-church-quiet. At the end of the night, he breaks the audience into parts to sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and you may sing as loud as you like.

These are just a few curated selections, but they're just the tip of the iceberg in Southern California; please make your own holiday event recommendations in the comments below. 

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

; Credit: LA Johnson/NPR

When Congress allocated money for higher education in the coronavirus rescue package, it set aside nearly $350 million for colleges that had "significant unmet needs."

Most of that money has now been allotted by the U.S. Department of Education to small, private colleges that serve just a fraction of U.S. college students. Meanwhile, public colleges — which serve more than 70% of all college students — are facing a steep drop in state funding.

The 20 institutions that received the most amount of money from the unmet-need fund serve less than 3,000 students combined, and about half are religious schools — including Bible colleges and seminaries — several of which serve less than 100 students.

Don't see the graphic above? Click here.

Lawmakers designed this unmet-need fund to give priority to any higher education institution that has received less than $500,000 through the CARES Act's other pots of funding. As a result, a school like Virginia Beach Theological Seminary, which serves 47 students, is eligible to receive $496,930 in federal aid.

"Imagine you had a special reserve fund to deal with a big crisis and you spent over 90% of that in one fell swoop on vacation tickets," or something that "wasn't as necessary in the moment," says Ben Miller, the vice president for postsecondary education at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Miller argues larger public colleges, including community colleges that serve tens of thousands of students, should be getting more financial support. He calculates the department allocated more than $320 million of the $350 million on relief for small colleges, most of them private.

"As a result, they only have about 8% of the dollars they originally got here left to help any other college in the country that might be most affected," he says.

As with other CARES Act funding, in order to receive the money, an institution would still need to request it from the Department of Education.

Much of the CARES Act's more than $14 billion for higher education is being distributed according to the number of full-time low-income students a college serves, which is measured through federal Pell Grants.

The $350-million unmet-need fund followed a different formula. Miller says for this particular pot, schools that did not receive $500,000 or more from other available CARES Act funds were given the difference between what they did receive and $500,000 limit.

"So the result is that the smaller you are and the less money you've already gotten, the more you get from this program," Miller says.

But $350 million can only go so far. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was given the discretion to choose which schools would benefit from the fund, and by how much.

Some schools were baffled when they learned they had been allotted hundreds of thousands of dollars in relief, and many weren't aware they were even eligible for the money. Brad Smith, the president of Bakke Graduate University in Dallas, which was allotted $497,338 in federal aid, says he didn't learn of his school's eligibility until he was contacted by NPR.

"I don't know anything about this," Smith says, noting that his school hadn't asked for additional federal help. "I'm taking responsibility to find out what it means."

An Education Department spokesperson tells NPR, "In order to receive this funding, an institution will need to request it. Any institution that does not need this money should simply decline to request it so schools will not be in the position of having to return unneeded funds."

The department says, once the requests are processed, any remaining funds will be redistributed through competitive grants.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

; Credit: LA Johnson/NPR

When Congress allocated money for higher education in the coronavirus rescue package, it set aside nearly $350 million for colleges that had "significant unmet needs."

Most of that money has now been allotted by the U.S. Department of Education to small, private colleges that serve just a fraction of U.S. college students. Meanwhile, public colleges — which serve more than 70% of all college students — are facing a steep drop in state funding.

The 20 institutions that received the most amount of money from the unmet-need fund serve less than 3,000 students combined, and about half are religious schools — including Bible colleges and seminaries — several of which serve less than 100 students.

Don't see the graphic above? Click here.

Lawmakers designed this unmet-need fund to give priority to any higher education institution that has received less than $500,000 through the CARES Act's other pots of funding. As a result, a school like Virginia Beach Theological Seminary, which serves 47 students, is eligible to receive $496,930 in federal aid.

"Imagine you had a special reserve fund to deal with a big crisis and you spent over 90% of that in one fell swoop on vacation tickets," or something that "wasn't as necessary in the moment," says Ben Miller, the vice president for postsecondary education at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Miller argues larger public colleges, including community colleges that serve tens of thousands of students, should be getting more financial support. He calculates the department allocated more than $320 million of the $350 million on relief for small colleges, most of them private.

"As a result, they only have about 8% of the dollars they originally got here left to help any other college in the country that might be most affected," he says.

As with other CARES Act funding, in order to receive the money, an institution would still need to request it from the Department of Education.

Much of the CARES Act's more than $14 billion for higher education is being distributed according to the number of full-time low-income students a college serves, which is measured through federal Pell Grants.

The $350-million unmet-need fund followed a different formula. Miller says for this particular pot, schools that did not receive $500,000 or more from other available CARES Act funds were given the difference between what they did receive and $500,000 limit.

"So the result is that the smaller you are and the less money you've already gotten, the more you get from this program," Miller says.

But $350 million can only go so far. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was given the discretion to choose which schools would benefit from the fund, and by how much.

Some schools were baffled when they learned they had been allotted hundreds of thousands of dollars in relief, and many weren't aware they were even eligible for the money. Brad Smith, the president of Bakke Graduate University in Dallas, which was allotted $497,338 in federal aid, says he didn't learn of his school's eligibility until he was contacted by NPR.

"I don't know anything about this," Smith says, noting that his school hadn't asked for additional federal help. "I'm taking responsibility to find out what it means."

An Education Department spokesperson tells NPR, "In order to receive this funding, an institution will need to request it. Any institution that does not need this money should simply decline to request it so schools will not be in the position of having to return unneeded funds."

The department says, once the requests are processed, any remaining funds will be redistributed through competitive grants.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Mary Ann de Lares Norris is Chief Operating Officer of Oblong Industries. She brings her dog LouLou to Oblong's downtown LA headquarters.; Credit: Brian Watt/KPCC

KPCC recently reported on the tech world’s diversity problem. Technology firms face challenges in hiring diverse staffs of its coders, web developers and software engineers.

It’s also a challenge at nonprofits such as Southern California Public Radio,  parent of 89.3 KPCC, which has always sought to build a staff that reflects the region it serves. The section of that staff that develops the KPCC app and makes its website run is all white and mostly male.

But a small talent pool means the diversity challenge is even greater for nonprofits and even smaller tech firms.

“The first problem is that all of the people working for me are male,” says Alex Schaffert, the one female on KPCC’s tech team.  “I’m kind of focusing on maybe getting another girl into the mix.”

Schaffert can use the term “girl” because she happens to be the leader of the tech team:  KPCC’s Managing Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation. 

Why diversity is important

Schaffert recently launched the topic of diversity – or lack thereof – at a weekly meeting of her team. She expected a “stilted and awkward” discussion from the five white men on her team, but a few of them didn’t hold back.  

“Not having diversity represented on the team leaves us more susceptible to circular thinking and everyone sort of verifying each other's assumptions,” said Joel Withrow,  who was serving at the time as KPCC’s Product Manager. “It impacts the work. It limits what you’re able to build.”

Sean Dillingham, KPCC’s Design and Development Manager, said living in a diverse community is what attracted him to Los Angeles, and he wants diversity in his immediate work team, too.

“When I look at other tech companies, I will often go to their ‘about us’ page, where they’ll have a page of photos of everyone, and I am immediately turned off when I just see just a sea of white dudes, or even just a sea of dudes,” Dillingham said.

Big competition, small talent pool

Dillingham and Schaffert are currently recruiting heavily to fill two tech-savvy positions. When a reporter or editor job opens up at KPCC, Schaffert says close to 100 resumes come in.

"But if you post a programmer job, and you get three or four resumes, you may not get lucky among those resumes," she says. "There may not be a woman in there. There may not be a person of color in there."

In other words, the talent pool is already small, and the diversity challenge makes it even smaller. KPCC is competing for talent with Google and Yahoo and all the start-ups on L.A.’s Silicon Beach. 

Schaffert’s being proactive, mining LinkedIn and staging networking events to attract potential candidates. She’s also trying to make sure KPCC’s job descriptions don’t sound like some she's seen in the tech world.

"If you read between the lines, they’re really looking for someone who is male and is somewhere between 25-30 years old and likes foosball tables and free energy drinks in the refrigerator," Schaffert says. “So you read between lines, and you know that they’re not talking about me, a mother of two kids who also has a demanding career. They're talking about someone different.”

Pay vs. passion

Schaffert's challenges and approaches to dealing with them are similar to those of Mary Ann de Lares Norris, the Chief Operating Officer at Oblong Industries. Based in downtown Los Angeles and founded in 2006, the company designs operating platforms for businesses that allow teams to collaborate in real time on digital parts of a project.

“I think technology and diversity is tough,” Norris told KPCC.  She’s proud her company’s management ranks are diverse, but says only 12 percent of its engineers are female. “Pretty standard in the tech industry, but it’s not great,” Norris says. “We really strive to increase that number, and all of the other companies are also, and it's really hard.”

Like Schaffert at KPCC, Norris works hard fine-tuning job descriptions and communicating that her company values diversity and work-life balance. But sometimes, it just boils down to money.

"We have to put out offers that have competitive salaries,” Norris says, adding that she can’t compete with the major tech firms. "The Googles and the Facebooks of the world can always pay more than we can. So we attract people who are passionate about coming to work for Oblong.  And, of course, we also offer stock options."

KPCC doesn’t have the  stock options, but we’ve got plenty of passion. Could that be the secret recruiting weapon for both small tech companies and nonprofits?  

LinkedIn recently surveyed engineers about what they look for in an employer. Good pay and work-life balance were the two top draws. Slightly more women prioritized work-life balance and slightly more men chose the big bucks. 

Clinical Entrepreneurship professor Adlai Wertman says that, historically, nonprofits and small businesses actually had the upper hand over big companies in recruiting minorities and women.

"There’s a feeling that they’re safer, more caring environments, less killer environments, and we know that corporate America has been the bastion of white males," said Wertman. 

But Wertman says that advantage disappears in the tech world because of the "supply-and-demand" problem with talent. When big firms decide to focus on diversity – as some have recently — they have plenty of resources.

"They’re always going to be able to pay more, and in truth they’re getting access to students coming out of these schools in ways that we as nonprofits and small companies never will," said Wertman. 

Wertman worked 18 years as an investment banker on Wall Street, then left to head a nonprofit on L.A.’s skid row. Now he heads the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab Enterprise Lab at USC’s Marshall School of Business. He believes that, early on, the big companies have the best shot attracting diverse tech talent. But in the long run, much of that talent will turn back to smaller firms and nonprofits.

"I think ultimately people vote with where they’re most comfortable, where 'my values align with my employer's values, and if I don’t feel those values align, then I’m going to leave,'" Wertman said. "Ultimately, I think, for a lot of women and minorities, there’s a lot of value alignment within communities that are doing good in the world." 

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Tourism businesses operating in protected conservation areas in Europe engage in a high number of sustainable practices, a recent survey of over 900 small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) reveals. Reasons for their sustainable behaviour include cutting costs, improving company image and lifestyle choices.

Environmentally responsible attitudes and behaviour do not necessarily translate into real benefits for the environment, according to the results of a new study. The study shows that people who think they are environmentally aware – and even those who, in some respects, seem to behave in an environmentally friendly way – actually have just as large an impact on the environment as other consumers.

A rare small-bodied pterosaur, a flying reptile from the Late Cretaceous period approximately 77 million years ago, is the first of its kind to have been discovered on the west coast of North America.

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Green spaces in cities can have a cooling influence which helps reduce the ‘urban heat island effect’. New research from Portugal has demonstrated that even a small community garden can provide a significant cooling impact that can help efforts to adapt to climate change.

Despite the contribution that large-scale, intensive agriculture has made to global food production, food shortages still occur with particularly severe consequences for the poor. More investment in locally-led, small-scale farming would help ensure longer-term food security for the world’s most vulnerable under a changing climate and bring environmental benefits, according to a recent analysis of adaptation work in Uganda.

Plastic pollution is a threat to marine ecosystems, as plastics are persistent, toxic and can accumulate up the food chain. This study assessed the abundance of small pieces of plastic in Alang, India. The authors found, on average, 81 mg of small plastic fragments per kg of sediment, which they say is the direct result of shipbreaking.

To restore a river site to good ecological status involves comparing it to similar sites that have been far less affected by human activity. A recent study has established a set of guidelines that define an acceptable level of human pressure that can be used to identify these minimally disturbed sites and ensure consistent ecological assessment among EU Member States.

Applying a low voltage to polluted river sediment can boost microbes’ natural ability to degrade harmful polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminants, according to a new study. The approach could be a cost-effective, sustainable strategy to bioremediate polluted sites.

Research from Slovakia suggests that the total area of change in land cover, as well as land management practices, are more important in generating floods than the type of land cover change, such as deforestation.

While Amazon Web Services, or AWS, and Microsoft are restructuring some large contracts on a case-by-case basis, according to people familiar with the decisions, smaller companies aren’t receiving the same flexibility.

Small mammals clearly benefit from a UK agri-environment scheme (AES), a recent study concludes. Numbers and diversity of voles, shrews and mice were found to increase on and around farmland with 6 m wide field margins and patches of semi-natural habitat - features encouraged under the government-led AES.

Only about two or three small birds are killed by wind turbines each year for every 225-300 houses supplied with renewable energy, new research suggests. The study collated data from 116 US and Canadian studies on 156 species of passerines (small birds). The study suggests some species are affected more than others, but that wind turbines generally have only a minor impact on these small-bird populations.

Applying a low voltage to polluted river sediment can boost microbes’ natural ability to degrade harmful polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminants, according to a new study. The approach could be a cost-effective, sustainable strategy to bioremediate polluted sites.

Using hydrogen as an energy carrier can help reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with fossil fuels, according to recent research. However, if used on a large-scale, it is important that hydrogen does not leak significantly into the atmosphere as it might have some negative environmental effects, such as increasing the lifetime of methane, increasing climate effects and causing some depletion of the ozone layer.

Small streams are important refuges for biodiversity, yet knowledge of the effects of agricultural pesticides on these freshwater bodies is limited. Researchers have used national monitoring data to determine the number of small streams in Germany where regulatory acceptable concentrations (RACs) of pesticides are exceeded. An analysis of data covering almost 500 pesticides and over 2 000 small streams suggests that agricultural land use is a major contributor of pesticides to streams. Overall, RACs were exceeded at 26% of sampled streams, and exceedances were 3.7 times more likely if a stream was near agricultural land. This finding may have implications for environmental monitoring and agri-environmental measures.