Introduction Effective climate governance requires public support across partisan and institutional divides. Although climate concern, institutional trust, and political ideology are known predictors of environmental attitudes, their combined effects remain insufficiently understood. This study examines how these factors interact to shape support for climate-related policies. Methods Survey data from 734 residents of the Austin, Texas metropolitan area in 2023 were analyzed using a series of regression models. Independent variables included climate concern and trust in government, nonprofit, and private institutions, with political ideology tested as a moderator. Results Greater climate concern consistently predicted stronger support for climate policies. Institutional trust was also positively associated with policy support. When disaggregated, trust in nonprofit organizations and government institutions significantly increased support, with nonprofit trust showing the strongest association. Trust in private-sector actors was not significantly related to policy attitudes. Political ideology moderated these relationships: Republicans expressed lower support when institutional trust was low, but the partisan gap narrowed as trust increased. Higher income was associated with lower policy support. Conclusion Climate concern functions as a broad driver of policy support, while institutional trust operates as a conditional mechanism shaping partisan differences. Strengthening institutional legitimacy may help bridge ideological divides in climate governance.
Accurate predictions of gravitational wave signals from asymmetric compact binaries are accessible through black hole perturbation theory and self-force calculations. Faithful waveform models will require contributions from first- and second-order terms in the small mass-ratio expansion. The problem of second-order Kerr perturbations is exacerbated by non-separability of the metric perturbation equations and non-linear mode coupling, which motivates this m-mode approach. This work moves towards the eventual goal of second-order Kerr perturbations by calculating first-order Schwarzschild metric perturbations via m-modes in the frequency domain for the first time. We solve the Lorenz gauge field equations as a system of coupled elliptic partial differential equations that govern each m-mode. Our Mathematica code implements a second-order finite difference representation of the field equations, which we solve as a sparse linear algebra problem. Regularization near the small body is achieved through the effective source method, and our presentation introduces a new puncture expansion of the singular field for a point mass in Kerr spacetime. Issues related to problematic near-horizon behavior are explored and then mitigated by applying sophisticated near-horizon boundary conditions. Our results illustrate the features of each component and m-mode of the metric perturbation, and we are able to calculate gravitational wave energy fluxes with sufficient accuracy to enable future second-order self-force calculations.
STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) identity is an important outcome of STEM education and an effective means for developing a STEM-engaged public and workforce. While most identity research has been qualitative, there is a growing desire to study student identity, in context, through quantitative measures. Our understanding of and ability to cultivate students’ STEM identity is reliant upon robust measures. This systematic literature review of 153 peer-reviewed quantitative and mixed-methods studies that measure student (i.e., elementary school-aged children to adult learners) STEM identity examined study characteristics, theoretical frameworks, STEM identity components, and psychometric quality evidence. Findings revealed a predominance of measures from the United States and Western countries; samples of students who are mostly white, male, and in college; studies measuring science identity; a vast array of measurement instrument sources, theoretical frameworks, and identity constructs and components; and reliability and validity limitations. Future directions entail more inclusive, international sampling; explicit discussion of measurement instrument sources, theories, and component definitions; gathering of multiple forms of reliability, validity, and fairness evidence; and leveraging network analysis in systematic literature review methodologies. Implications include developing and validating ontologies and asset-based STEM identity measures to understand and cultivate continuous STEM identity trajectories.
To model gravitational waveforms from extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) for the upcoming LISA space mission, gravitational self-force calculations are needed to second order in perturbation theory. However, to date these calculations have only been attempted for the simplest case of circular orbits in Schwarzschild spacetime. In this work, we present a new computational method aimed at performing generic second-order self-force calculations in Kerr spacetime using methods from the adjacent field of numerical relativity. We perform an m-mode separation of variables, add null ("vtu") slicing in horizon-penetrating coordinates, and solve the resulting elliptic PDEs using high-order discontinuous Galerkin discretization, adaptive mesh-refinement, and an iterative Krylov-type linear solver with parallelizable multigrid-Schwarz preconditioning. We find that our method achieves exponential convergence for the self-force on a scalar point charge in Kerr spacetime up to spins of a=0.998 (Thorne limit) on circular equatorial orbits as close as the ISCO (prograde and retrograde), despite the non-smooth puncture on the grid. We solve for 20 m-modes in parallel in a few seconds and retain the flexibility to extend the method to gravitational self-force and more generic orbits in the future. The code to perform these calculations is publicly available in the open-source numerical relativity code SpECTRE.
Earth's largest habitats, the deep oceans, are home to an incredible diversity of organisms that are adapted to low light, cold temperatures, often limited food availability, and high hydrostatic pressures. With increasing habitat depth, these environmental variables and a long evolutionary history drive biodiversity shifts across deep-sea communities. However, the relative influences of physical and biological factors in structuring deep-sea community composition remain complex to disentangle. Here, we document shifts in the biodiversity of fish assemblages with increasing depth in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea using remotely operated vehicle and human occupied vehicle surveys across a 6000-meter depth range. We show significant declines in fish assemblage biodiversity and abundance with increasing depth based on 1137 observations of at least 94 species of fishes. These changes correlate strongly with co-varying environmental factors such as declining temperatures and increasing hydrostatic pressure. Habitat also influenced observations, with no pelagic taxa seen here deeper than 1200 m and with fishes most commonly observed over soft, rather than hard or mixed substrates. These findings add to our understanding of deep-sea fish biogeography, with expanded depth and regional ranges for multiple taxa. At abyssal and hadal depths in and around the Puerto Rico Trench, most observations were of cusk eels in the family Ophidiidae, highlighting the importance of this understudied group to ultradeep ecosystems. These findings demonstrate the value of in situ observational approaches to study deep-sea fish ecology and behaviour and inform understanding of how changes in temperature and pressure influence biodiversity across depth.Los h & aacute;bitats m & aacute;s extensos de la Tierra, los oc & eacute;anos profundos, sostienen una incre & iacute;ble diversidad de organismos adaptados a la poca luz, las bajas temperaturas, las altas presiones hidrost & aacute;ticas, y frecuentemente la disponibilidad limitada de alimentos. Con el aumento de la profundidad, estas variables ambientales y una larga historia evolutiva cambian la biodiversidad de las comunidades del mar profundo. Sin embargo, la influencia relativa de los factores f & iacute;sicos y biol & oacute;gicos en la composici & oacute;n de las comunidades profundas sigue siendo compleja de desenredar. En este estudio, documentamos los cambios en la biodiversidad del conjunto de peces a trav & eacute;s de un rango de profundidad de 6000 metros en el Atl & aacute;ntico tropical y el mar Caribe usando sondeos por veh & iacute;culos operados a distancia (ROV) y veh & iacute;culos tripulados (HOV). Con 1137 observaciones de al menos 114 especies de peces mostramos disminuciones significativas en la biodiversidad y abundancia del conjunto de peces con el aumento de la profundidad. Estos cambios se correlacionan fuertemente con covariables ambientales, como la disminuci & oacute;n de las temperaturas y el aumento de la presi & oacute;n hidrost & aacute;tica. El h & aacute;bitat tambi & eacute;n influy & oacute; en las observaciones, ya que no se observaron taxones pel & aacute;gicos a m & aacute;s de 1200 m de profundidad y los peces se observaron con mayor frecuencia en sustratos blandos, en lugar de duros o mixtos. Estos hallazgos ampl & iacute;an nuestra comprensi & oacute;n de la biogeograf & iacute;a de los peces del mar profundo. Ampliaron los rangos de profundidad y de distribuci & oacute;n regional para varios taxones. En las profundidades abisales y hadales de la Fosa de Puerto Rico y sus alrededores, la mayor & iacute;a de las observaciones correspondieron a la familia Ophidiidae, lo que resalta la importancia de este grupo poco estudiado para los ecosistemas ultraprofundos. Estos hallazgos demuestran el valor de observaciones in situ para estudiar la ecolog & iacute;a y el comportamiento de los peces del mar profundo e informan sobre c & oacute;mo los cambios de temperatura y presi & oacute;n influyen en la biodiversidad a lo largo de la profundidad.
