Schooling With Racial Equity at the Center: A Case Study Exploration of One Elementary School-Based Leadership Team

Pre-K–12 schooling in the United States has historically and systemically promoted ideas of Black inferiority while safeguarding the characteristics of white supremacy culture embedded in all aspects of the education system. The notion of white dominance is evident throughout studies, policies, and reports from district, state, and federal officials who have been tasked with closing the achievement gap but instead have assigned blame to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students and families. An analysis of the history of U.S. public education reveals not a single achievement gap but multiple opportunity gaps that perpetuate the subjugation of Black students through educational injustice. This study employed critical race theory to examine how a pre-K–5 elementary school community located in the northeastern United States prioritized antiracism and applied a multilayered approach to racial equity. Case study methodology was utilized to unpack the nonlinear and continual racial equity efforts of a school-based leadership team while capturing the school’s journey toward a culture of achievement for Black students. The study’s findings revealed that a multilayered approach to racial equity is collaborative, complex, and context-specific. The study also found that though intentional antiracism efforts grounded in an understanding that racism is pervasive in U.S. education contributed to growth, a school culture of achievement for Black students was not yet realized in this case. Recommendations from this study may inform collaborative practices and processes that school-based leadership teams can leverage to prioritize racial equity and confront white supremacy within pre-K–12 education

Temporal stability of the maturation schedule of capelin (Mallotus villosus Mueller) in the Barents Sea

Capelin in the Barents Sea are primarily harvested in a terminal fishery that targets maturing indiviuals. Theory predicts that, in a semelparous population (i.e., one in which reproduction is seasonal, synchronous, and followed by parental mortality), an unselective, terinal fishery (i.e., one in which most of the fish that are not caught will not have a new spawning opportunity) does not generate strong selection for changed age and size at mturation. The probabilistic maturation reaction norm (PMRN) method was applied to test this prediction and to detect possible temporal changes in length at maturation o Barents Sea capelin between 1978 and 2008. Maturation reaction norms suggest that maturation is age-independent in capelin, but that males require a larger size to attainthe same maturation probability as females. No temporal trends in length at maturation could be detected, thus confirming the theoretical prediction. Furthermore, none of thecandidate environmental variables tested to explain the temporal variability in length at maturation (water temperature and capelin biomass) consistently shoed a significant correlation with the PMRN midpoints

Can fisheries-induced evolution shift reference points for fisheries management?

Biological reference points are important tools for fisheries management. Reference points are not static, but may change when a population's environment or the population itself changes. Fisheries-induced evolution is one mechanism that can alter population characteristics, leading to 'shifting' reference points by modifying the underlying biological processes or by changing the perception of a fishery system. The former causes changes in 'true' reference points, whereas the latter is caused by changes in the yardsticks used to quantify a system's status. Unaccounted shifts of either kind imply that reference points gradually lose their intended meaning. This can lead to increased precaution, which is safe, but potentially costly. Shifts can also occur in more perilous directions, such that actual risks are greater than anticipated. Our qualitative analysis suggests that all commonly used reference points are susceptible to shifting through fisheries-induced evolution, including the limit and 'precautionary' reference points for spawning-stock biomass, Blim and Bpa, and the target reference point for fishing mortality, F0.1. Our findings call for increased awareness of fisheries-induced changes and highlight the value of always basing reference points on adequately updated information, to capture all changes in the biological processes that drive fish population dynamics

Reproductive investment in Atlantic cod populations off Newfoundland: Contrasting trends between males and females

Life history theory predicts selection for higher reproductive investment in response to increased mortality among mature individuals. We tested this prediction over the period from 1978 to 2013 for three populations of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) off Newfoundland. These populations were heavily fished for a long period. We considered changes in standardized gonad weight as a proxy for changes in gonadal investment. We accounted for the allometry between gonad and body weight, individual body condition, water temperature, and potential spatial and density-dependent effects. Males display significant temporal trends in gonadal investment in all populations; in agreement with theoretical predictions, these trends show increased gonadal investments during the earlier part of the time series when mortality was high, with the trends leveling off or reversing after the later imposition of fishing moratoria. In contrast, females display patterns that are less consistent and expected; significant trends are detected only when accounting for density-dependent effects, with females in two populations unexpectedly showing a long-term decline in gonadal investment. Our results support the hypothesis that fisheries-induced evolution has occurred in gonadal investment in males, but not in females, and suggest that gonadal investment is more important for male reproductive success than expected in this lekking species

Fishing-induced evolution of growth: Concepts, mechanisms and the empirical evidence

The interest in fishing-induced life-history evolution has been growing in the last decade, in part because of the increasing number of studies suggesting evolutionary changes in life-history traits, and the potential ecological and economic consequences these changes may have. Among the traits that could evolve in response to fishing, growth has lately received attention. However, critical reading of the literature on growth evolution in fish reveals conceptual confusion about the nature of growth itself as an evolving trait, and about the different ways fishing can affect growth and size-at-age of fish, both on ecological and on evolutionary time-scales. It is important to separate the advantages of being big and the costs of growing to a large size, particularly when studying life-history evolution. In this review, we explore the selection pressures on growth and the resultant evolution of growth from a mechanistic viewpoint. We define important concepts and outline the processes that must be accounted for before observed phenotypic changes can be ascribed to growth evolution. When listing traits that could be traded-off with growth rate, we group the mechanisms into those affecting resource acquisition and those governing resource allocation. We summarize potential effects of fishing on traits related to growth and discuss methods for detecting evolution of growth. We also challenge the prevailing expectation that fishing-induced evolution should always lead to slower growth

Evolutionary impact assessment: accounting for evolutionary consequences of fishing in an ecosystem approach to fisheries management

Managing fisheries resources to maintain healthy ecosystems is one of the main goals of the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF). while the number of international treaties call for the implementation of EAF, there are still gaps in the underlying methodology. One aspect that has received substantial scientific attention recently in fisheries-induced evolution (FIE). Increasing evidence indicates that intensive fishing has the potential to exert strong directional selection on life-history traits, behavior, physiology, and morphology of exploited fish. Of particular concern is that reversing evolutionary responses to fishing can be much more difficult than reversing demographic or phenotypically plastic responses. Furthermore, like climate change, multiple agents cause fisheries-induced evolution with effects accumulating over time. Consequently, FIE may alter then utility derived from fish stocks, which in turn can modify the monetary value living aquatic resources provide to society. Quantifying and predicting the evolutionary effects of fishing is therefore important for both ecological and economic reasons, An important reason this is not happening is the lack of an appropriate assessment framework. We therefor describe the evolutionary impact assessment (EvoIA) as a structured approach for assessing the evolutionary outcomes of alternative management options. EvoIA can contribute to the ecosystem approach to fisheries management by clarifying how evolution may alter stock properties and ecological relations, support the precautionary approach to fisheries management by addressing a previously overlooked source of uncertainty and risk, and thus contribute to sustainable fisheries

Norwegian spring-spawning herring as the test case of piecewise linear regression method for detecting maturation from growth patterns

Data from Norwegian spring-spawning herring Clupea harengus, were used empirically to assess the performance of a regression method aimed at detecting the time of the onset of maturation from growth trajectories. At the level of the whole dataset, the piecewise linear-regression method was accurate and showed only a minor bias (-0.17 years) relative to age at maturation visually read from scales. The method, however, was relatively imprecise and provided an estimate of age at maturation equal to the one read from the scale in less than half of the cases (47.6%). Moreover, bias was strongly dependent on age at maturation: the age at maturation of early maturing fish was often overestimated, whereas the opposite was true for late-maturing fish. Accuracy and precision of the regression method relative to visual readings also depended on the growth type (determined by the nursery area of young C. harengus) and cohort but not on sex. Modifying the original regression method enabled marginally improving the precision of the approach but a strong maturation age-dependent bias persisted. The results with C. harengus suggested that age-at-maturation estimates from the piecewise linear regression method should be treated with caution

Habitat suitability for juvenile common sole (Solea solea, L.) in the Bay of Biscay (France) : A quantitative description using indicators based on epibenthic fauna

This study describes the spatial distribution of young-of-the-year common sole based on beam trawl surveys conducted in late summer in the coastal and estuarine parts of the Bay of Biscay (France). Previous studies showed that habitat suitability for juvenile common sole varies according to physical factors and notably bathymetry and sediment structure. Nevertheless, the use of these descriptors alone to model habitat suitability led to considerable unexplained variability in juvenile common sole distribution. Hence, the epibenthic macro- and megafauna collected during beam trawl surveys was taken into account to improve models of habitat suitability for these juvenile flatfish. Ecotrophic guilds based on life traits (behaviour, mobility and feeding) were used to develop generic indicators of trawled benthic fauna. These synthetic descriptors were used in generalized linear models of habitat suitability in order to characterize the distribution of juvenile common sole. This approach significantly improved the description based on physical descriptors and allowed demonstrating that young common sole distribution is related to the density of trawled deposit and suspension feeders and also of carnivorous organisms. These models provide a reliable method to develop indicators of nursery habitat suitability from trawl survey data with the aim of assessing and surveying their quality

Caractérisation des cellules souches mésenchymateuses du tissu adipeux porcin et de leurs effets sur la reprise de fonction des greffons rénaux dans un modèle préclinique porcin d’auto-transplantation mimant les conditions des donneurs décédés après arrêt

International audienceObjectifsLe phénomène d’ischémie-reperfusion (IR) est un processus central impliqué dans la dysfonction aiguë et chronique du greffon rénal. L’objectif de cette étude était de caractériser les cellules souches mésenchymateuses du tissu adipeux (TA) porcin (pASC) et leurs capacités à améliorer la reprise de fonction des greffons dans des conditions mimant la situation des donneurs décédés après arrêt cardiaque (DDAC).MéthodesLa morphologie, la prolifération, le phénotype en cytométrie de flux et le profil métabolique en résonance magnétique nucléaire (RMN) des pASC ont été déterminés. Leur résistance à une séquence d’hypoxie-réoxygénation (HR) a été évaluée en analysant leur viabilité cellulaire et leur profil métabolique en RMN. La faisabilité, les résultats fonctionnels et histologiques d’une injection autologue de 106 pASC/kg dans l’artère rénale de 3 greffons rénaux autotransplantés (après 1 h d’ischémie chaude et 24 h de conservation à 4 °C dans la solution UW et néphrectomie controlatérale – groupe pASC-AUTO) ont été comparés à un groupe de porcs autotransplantés sans injection de pASC – groupe AUTO-T.RésultatsLa technique d’extraction cellulaire est reproductible et permet d’obtenir suffisamment de pASC ayant les caractéristiques de cellules souches mésenchymateuses. Leur profil métabolique en RMN n’était pas modifié avec les passages, caractérisant la stabilité des lignées. Leur viabilité après HR était supérieure à 70 %. L’injection de 106 pASC/kg est réalisable 15 jours après le prélèvement du TA. À j7, la créatininémie moyenne du groupe pASC-AUTO était de 298 ± 33,8 versus 997,6 ± 170,6 μmol/L pour le groupe AUTO-T (p = 0,04). La reprise de fonction était significativement améliorée et les lésions histologiques réduites dans le groupe pASC-AUTO.ConclusionL’injection de pASC à la reperfusion des greffons dans un modèle porcin mimant la situation des DDAC semble améliorer la reprise de fonction et limiter les lésions tubulaires liées à l’ischémie-reperfusion des greffons à j7. Ces potentialités thérapeutiques devront être confirmées par des études complémentaires à la fin du suivi de 6 animaux à 3 mois