The University of Maine System (UMaine System or UMS) is a state university system in the U.S. state of Maine. It was created in 1968 by the Maine Legislature and consists of eight institutions, each with a distinct mission and regional character. Combined, there are approximately 33,000 students enrolled at these institutions.
We aim to better understand how to design impactful anti-oppression pedagogy training programs for faculty at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). To do this, we analyzed data from faculty participants in an anti-oppression training program to identify factors that faculty described as either challenges or accelerators to bringing anti-oppression pedagogy into the classroom. We contextualize these factors using an ecological perspective to examine potential challenges and accelerators at multiple levels of influence. This analysis of the challenges faculty face, along with impactful programmatic elements, informed our recommendations for future faculty training in anti-oppression classroom practice. We analyzed data from faculty participants ( N = 15) in an intensive anti-oppression training program using thematic analysis to sort qualitative data from participant surveys and interviews into (1) the ecological level discussed and (2) factors participants described as either Challenges or Accelerators as they worked to bring an anti-oppression intervention into the classroom. We cross-examined the Challenge and Accelerator codes across ecological levels to capture the complex contexts of bringing anti-oppression pedagogy into the classroom. We identified several ecological settings as important to shaping the challenges or accelerators faculty encountered in their anti-oppression work: Academia, Field of Study , University setting, Department setting, and Classroom setting. The multilevel challenges and accelerators that faculty may face in doing anti-oppression work at a PWI are discussed. We then identified overarching patterns in our thematic analysis and used these to recommend potential key ingredients for designing training programs to accelerate faculty work in anti-oppression pedagogy. Based on our analysis, we propose two key ingredients for anti-oppression faculty training programs: (1) facilitating faculty ownership of ongoing critical analysis of how power operates in their positionality related to interlocking systems of oppression, their academic discipline, and their classroom practice and (2) the development of an interdisciplinary community of learners who support each other in ongoing reflection, learning, and critical praxis. If PWIs want faculty to address issues of equity and justice, then they must acknowledge the nested challenges of anti-oppression work and invest in the necessary institutional changes and training.
As the impacts of anthropogenic climate change increase, conservation of climate-change refugia has become a key strategy for effective environmental stewardship. Over the last 5 years, the field of climate-change refugia conservation has made exciting advances, shifting from concepts and theory to refugia mapping and implementation. However, few studies have advanced to action on the ground; while 84% of studies identified and mapped refugia, only 4% involved implementing management action. Moreover, taxonomic and geographic gaps remain, with most studies focused on terrestrial plants and vertebrates in Europe and North America. Here, we outline impediments to implementation following the steps of the Climate-Change Refugia Conservation Cycle. Based on a systematic literature review, we elucidate advances and obstacles with examples from a diversity of systems and sectors from across the world and highlight emerging work bridging the gap between research and implementation.
Our understanding of how environmental variability shapes animal physiology and behaviour is rapidly evolving. This is largely facilitated by a new wave of physiology research that has embraced environmental variability by simulating real-world conditions in experimental designs. While the move away from classical static holding conditions offers promising insights into environmental physiology, it can also be logistically challenging, time-intensive and expensive. Here, we review when and where variability arises in aquatic environments and highlight exemplary studies that demonstrate how embracing variability can help us better understand organismal performance. We also discuss challenges associated with various types of manipulations and summarize technological advances, considerations and tips that we hope will make it less daunting for researchers to investigate the effects of environmental variability. This article is part of the theme issue 'Embracing variability in comparative physiology: why it matters and what to do with it'.
This work studies optimal polynomial approximants (OPAs) in the classical Hardy spaces on the unit disk, Hp (1 < p < infinity). In particular, we uncover some estimates concerning the OPAs of degree zero and one. It is also shown that if f is an element of Hp is an inner function, or if p > 2 is an even integer, then the roots of the nontrivial OPA for 1/fare bounded from the origin by a distance depending only on p. For p not equal 2, these results are made possible by the novel use of a family of inequalities which are derived from a Banach space analogue of the Pythagorean theorem.
Despite supplying essential nutrients to billions of people and sustaining hundreds of millions of livelihoods, blue foods are overlooked within food system frameworks and debates. This Perspective highlights the shortcomings and potential of the High-Level Panel Of Experts (HLPE) sustainable food systems (SFS) framework in addressing blue food dynamics. Drawing on a review of 124 peer-reviewed articles that cite the HLPE framework, and an examination of its authorship and values, we demonstrate that blue foods are rarely integrated into food systems analyses, reflecting epistemic inequalities in the field. We identify critical omissions—including production dynamics, food loss and waste, consolidation in supply chains, and normative values shaping decision-making—that constrain the framework’s application to blue foods (and other diverse contexts). To advance more inclusive and effective food system approaches, we recommend (1) greater use of food systems frameworks to examine blue food dynamics and other diverse food systems contexts, (2) updates to the SFS framework to integrate blue food contexts, and (3) guidance to operationalize these frameworks for research and policy action. We call on the HLPE to update the SFS framework, particularly through the forthcoming (2027) report on fisheries and aquaculture, to spotlight the framework’s utility for capturing the complexity of diverse yet essential food systems beyond production, including aquatic food systems.
