Amanda Gaulke, assistant professor of economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, found that students who return to college and finish a bachelor’s degree earn on average $4,294 more immediately after graduation and experience an extra income growth of $1,121 per year, on average. The Economics of Education Review recently published the study.

“No matter how I looked at the data, those who returned and finished a bachelor’s degree see an economically meaningful increase in income after degree completion,” Gaulke said. “The average age at graduation for this sample is 27, so they certainly have a lot of working years left to experience improved labor market outcomes.”

While current economic literature mainly focuses on the traditional college student — those who graduate high school, go to college, earn a degree, and then start a career — Gaulke wanted to determine if returning to finish a bachelor’s degree resulted in improved economic outcomes compared to both those who never returned and those who returned to complete a bachelor’s degree but dropped out again.

“This information is important for people who are wondering if they should return to school,” Gaulke said. “When thinking in terms of weighing costs and benefits, it is important for those people to know that there are real economic benefits of going back and completing a bachelor’s degree.”

Gaulke’s study also shows students who re-enroll and earn a degree are significantly more likely to be employed, work more weeks and work more full-time weeks each quarter. Additionally, those students who return but do not complete a degree also realized slight income gains.

Ultimately, businesses and the U.S. economy also benefit from having a trained workforce.

“To maximize economic output, we have to use resources efficiently,” Gaulke said. “If employees are not as productive or skilled because they are unable to make well-informed decisions about re-enrolling and completing their bachelor’s degrees, this reduces worker productivity.”

Gaulke said another benefit of this study is that many institutions of higher education have concerns about enrollment numbers and are expanding their recruitment efforts beyond students coming straight from high school. Many private sector companies now offer services to help colleges and universities re-enroll students who left without completing their degrees. The results of this study suggest that colleges and universities that develop or implement policies to help students re-enroll and finish a bachelor’s degree can potentially improve enrollment numbers and also help improve economic outcomes for these students as well.

Individuals interested in returning to K-State to finish a degree can discover more information about the university’s admission process for returning students and apply online today.

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The sea off the west coast of South America is one of the most vital and productive fishing grounds on earth. Around eight percent of the global catch of marine species comes from the areas off the coasts of Peru, where the near-surface Humboldt Current provides a high nutrient supply and thus sufficient food for commercially exploited fish species such as the anchovy. Ten percent of the total global catch of anchovies alone comes from the region. Much of it is processed into fish meal and oil and used primarily for aquacultures in China and Norway. However, catches of anchovy in the Humboldt upwelling system are currently declining. The causes of species shifts are mainly due to climate change according to the results of the new study.

Researchers from the Institute of Geosciences at Kiel University, together with colleagues from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research and international partners, have for the first time investigated the relationships between temperature, oxygen, nutrient supply and the occurrence of individual fish species using paleo-oceanographic data from the Humboldt Current region. The scientists focused on the warm period about 125,000 years ago (Eemian interglacial). During this time, conditions were similar to those predicted by climate projections (e.g., the IPCC report) for the end of the 21st century at the latest: comparable primary production but water temperatures two degrees Celsius higher than today and increased oxygen deficiency in mid-depth water masses.

For their paleo-oceanographic studies, the researchers at Kiel University primarily analyzed small fish vertebrae that they were able to isolate from the sediment cores. According to the results, smaller, goby-like fish predominated in coastal waters during the ancient warm period, while anchovies made up only a small proportion. Fish with smaller body sizes can adapt better to warmer temperatures. They retain their high activity even in less oxygenated waters thanks to their larger gill surface area relative to their body volume.

“The conditions of this past warm period that we were able to reconstruct from our samples can definitely be compared to the current development and put in context with future scenarios,” says first author of the study, Dr. Renato Salvatteci, who is currently working at the Center for Ocean and Society of the Kiel Marine Science (KMS) priority research area at Kiel University and in the BMBF-funded Humboldt-Tipping project. “According to this, there is a clear regime shift towards smaller fish that feel more comfortable in the warm, lower-oxygen conditions. We conclude from our results that the effects of human-induced climate change may have a stronger influence on the evolution of stocks in the region than previously thought,” Salvatteci added. Smaller fish are harder to catch and less palatable. According to the report, the impact on the Peru region, local fisheries income and global trade in anchovies could be far-reaching — potentially affecting global food security.

“Our studies using sediment cores can give us fairly accurate information about the changes and their dynamics in highly productive coastal waters around the world that have occurred in the wake of different climate states and over different time scales,” explains Professor Ralph Schneider, a paleoclimate researcher at the Institute of Geosciences at Kiel University and co-author of the study.

The results indicate that due to increasing warming in the Humboldt Current upwelling area, the ecosystem is heading towards a tipping point beyond which anchovy will begin to retreat and not continue to dominate nearshore fishing grounds. “Despite a flexible, sustainable and adaptive management strategy, anchovy biomass and landings have declined, suggesting that we are closer to the ecological tipping point than suspected,” summarizes lead author Renato Salvatteci.

The results of the study help to better assess the extent to which a warming ocean can provide sufficient food for the world’s population and what changes should be expected for the development of important fish species such as the anchovy.

The study was funded by the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 754 “Climate-Biogeochemical Interactions in the Tropical Ocean,” a collaborative project of Kiel University (CAU) and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Additional support came from the BMBF project Humboldt-Tipping, coordinated at the Center for Ocean and Society, as well as funding from the Emmy-Noether Junior Research Group ICONOX at GEOMAR. First author Renato Salvatteci was further supported by a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

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“Red dwarfs” are small stars and thus much cooler than our Sun. Around stars like these, liquid water is possible on planets much closer to the star than in our solar system. The distance between an exoplanet and its star is a crucial factor in its detection: the closer a planet is to its host star, the higher the probability that it can be detected.

In a study recently published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers led by Dr. Nicole Schanche of the Center for Space and Habitability CSH of the University of Bern report the discovery of the exoplanet TOI-2257 b orbiting a nearby red dwarf. Nicole Schanche is also a member of the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS, which the University of Bern runs together with the University of Geneva.

A special telescope is part of the solution

Exoplanets that are very far from our solar system cannot be observed directly with a telescope — they are too small and reflect too little light. However, one way to detect such planets is the transit method. This involves using telescopes to look for dips in the star’s brightness that occur when planets pass in front of the star. Repeated observations of the dips in the star’s brightness give precise measurements of the planet’s orbital period around the star, and the depth of the transit allows researchers to determine the planet’s diameter. When combined with planet mass estimates from other methods, such as using radial velocity measurements, the planet density can be calculated.

Planet TOI-2257 b was initially identified by data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite TESS space telescope. The small star was observed for a total of four months, but the gaps between observations meant that it was not clear whether the decrease in brightness could be explained by the transit of a planet with an orbit of 176, 88, 59, 44 or 35 days.

Observation of the star with the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope subsequently ruled out the possibility that a planet with a 59-day orbital period was causing the drop in brightness. “Next, we wanted to find out if the 35-day orbital period could be possible,” explains Nicole Schanche.

The Mexico-based SAINT-EX telescope, co-operated by the CSH and the NCCR PlanetS, is purpose-built to study red dwarfs and their planets in more detail. SAINT-EX is an acronym that stands for Search And characterIsatioN of Transiting EXoplanets. The project was named in honor of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Saint-Ex), the famous writer, poet and aviator. SAINT-EX observed a partial transit of TOI-2257 b and was able to confirm the exoplanet’s exact orbital period around its star, 35 days. “Another 35 days later, SAINT-EX was able to observe the entire transit, which gave us even more information about the properties of the system,” says co-author Robert Wells from the CSH, who was involved in the data processing.

A temperate planet with an irregular orbit

With its 35-day orbital period, TOI-2257 b orbits the host star at a distance where liquid water is possible on the planet, and therefore conditions favorable for the emergence of life could exist. Planets in this so-called “habitable zone” near a small red dwarf star are easier to study because they have shorter orbital periods and can therefore be observed more often. The radius of TOI-2257 b (2.2 times larger than Earth’s) suggests that the planet is rather gaseous, with high atmospheric pressure not conducive to life.

“We found that TOI-2257 b does not have a circular, concentric orbit,” explains Nicole Schanche. In fact, it is the most eccentric planet orbiting a cool star ever discovered. “In terms of potential habitability, this is bad news,” Nicole Schanche continues. “While the planet’s average temperature is comfortable, it varies from -80°C to about 100°C depending on where in its orbit the planet is, far from or close to the star.” A possible explanation for this surprising orbit is that further out in the system a giant planet is lurking and disturbing the orbit of TOI 2257 b. Further observations measuring the radial velocity of the star will help confirm the eccentricity and search for possible additional planets that could not be observed in transit.

Candidate for observation with JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which successfully launched on December 25, will revolutionize research into exoplanet atmospheres. In order to prioritize good candidates for observations with the JWST, a transmission spectroscopy metric (TSM) was developed that rates different system properties. TOI-2257 b is well positioned with respect to TSM and is one of the most attractive sub-Neptune targets for further observations. “In particular, the planet could be studied for signs of features such as water vapor in the atmosphere,” Nicole Schanche concludes.

In a study published this month in The International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, a research team led by the University of Tsukuba describes a highly efficient method for simulating light-matter interactions at the atomic scale.

What makes these interactions so difficult to simulate? One reason is that phenomena associated with the interactions encompass many areas of physics, involving both the propagation of light waves and the dynamics of electrons and ions in matter. Another reason is that such phenomena can cover a wide range of length and time scales.

Given the multiphysics and multiscale nature of the problem, light-matter interactions are typically modeled using two separate computational methods. The first is electromagnetic analysis, whereby the electromagnetic fields of the light are studied; the second is a quantum-mechanical calculation of the optical properties of the matter. But these methods assume that the electromagnetic fields are weak and that there is a difference in the length scale.

“Our approach provides a unified and improved way to simulate light-matter interactions,” says senior author of the study Professor Kazuhiro Yabana. “We achieve this feat by simultaneously solving three key physics equations: the Maxwell equation for the electromagnetic fields, the time-dependent Kohn-Sham equation for the electrons, and the Newton equation for the ions.”

The researchers implemented the method in their in-house software SALMON (Scalable Ab initio Light-Matter simulator for Optics and Nanoscience), and they thoroughly optimized the simulation computer code to maximize its performance. They then tested the code by modeling light-matter interactions in a thin film of amorphous silicon dioxide, composed of more than 10,000 atoms. This simulation was carried out using almost 28,000 nodes of the fastest supercomputer in the world, Fugaku, at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan.

“We found that our code is extremely efficient, achieving the goal of one second per time step of the calculation that is needed for practical applications,” says Professor Yabana. “The performance is close to its maximum possible value, set by the bandwidth of the computer memory, and the code has the desirable property of excellent weak scalability.”

Although the team simulated light-matter interactions in a thin film in this work, their approach could be used to explore many phenomena in nanoscale optics and photonics.

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Biofilms are prevalent in the living world, inhabiting sewer pipes, kitchen counters and even the surface of our teeth. A previous research study demonstrated that these biofilms employ sophisticated systems to communicate with one another, while another proved biofilms have a robust capacity for memory.

Süel’s laboratory, along with researchers at Stanford University and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain, has now found a feature of biofilms that reveal these communities as far more advanced than previously believed. Biological Sciences graduate student Kwang-Tao Chou, former Biological Sciences graduate student Daisy Lee, Süel and their colleagues discovered that biofilm cells are organized in elaborate patterns, a feature that previously only had been associated with higher-level organisms such as plants and animals. The findings, which describe the culmination of eight years of research, are published Jan. 6 in the journal Cell.

“We are seeing that biofilms are much more sophisticated than we thought,” said Süel, a UC San Diego professor in the Division of Biological Sciences’ Section of Molecular Biology, with affiliations in the San Diego Center for Systems Biology, BioCircuits Institute and Center for Microbiome Innovation. “From a biological perspective our results suggest that the concept of cell patterning during development is far more ancient than previously thought. Apparently, the ability of cells to segment themselves in space and time did not just emerge with plants and vertebrates, but may go back over a billion years.”

Biofilm communities are made up of cells of different types. Scientists previously had not thought that these disparate cells could be organized into regulated complex patterns. For the new study, the scientists developed experiments and a mathematical model that revealed the genetic basis for a “clock and wavefront” mechanism, previously only seen in highly evolved organisms ranging from plants to fruit flies to humans. As the biofilm expands and consumes nutrients, a “wave” of nutrient depletion moves across cells within the bacterial community and freezes a molecular clock inside each cell at a specific time and position, creating an intricate composite pattern of repeating segments of distinct cell types.

The breakthrough for the researchers was the ability to identify the genetic circuit underlying the biofilm’s ability to generate the biofilm community-wide concentric rings of gene expression patterns. The researchers were then able to model predictions showing that biofilms could inherently generate many segments.

“Our discovery demonstrates that bacterial biofilms employ a developmental patterning mechanism hitherto believed to be exclusive to vertebrates and plant systems,” the authors note in the Cell paper.

The study’s findings offer implications for a multitude of research areas. Because biofilms are pervasive in our lives, they are of interest in applications ranging from medicine to the food industry and even the military. Biofilms as systems with the capability to test how simple cell systems can organize themselves into complex patterns could be useful in developmental biology to investigate specific aspects of the clock and waveform mechanism that functions in vertebrates, as one example.

“We can see that bacterial communities are not just globs of cells,” said Süel, who envisions research collaborations offering bacteria as new paradigms for studying developmental patterns. “Having a bacterial system allows us to provide some answers that are difficult to obtain in vertebrate and plant systems because bacteria offer more experimentally accessible systems that could provide new insights for the field of development.”

Coauthors of the paper include: Kwang-Tao Chou (UC San Diego graduate student), Dong-yeon Lee (former UC San Diego graduate student, now a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University), Jian-geng Chiou (UC San Diego postdoctoral scholar), Leticia Galera-Laporta (UC San Diego postdoctoral scholar), San Ly (former UC San Diego researcher), Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo (Universitat Pompeu Fabra Professor) and Gürol Süel (UC San Diego Professor).

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Materials provided by University of California – San Diego. Original written by Mario Aguilera. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.