Northern Kentucky University

Abstract Plants produce a variety of structural and chemical defences to deter herbivores, which can covary across every scale of biological organization. Along these lines, it has been suggested that young leaves differ from old leaves in their defence strategies, but studies have largely focused on woody plants and/or chemical traits. Thus, we lack an understanding of how structural and chemical defences ontogenetically covary across a large portion of plant diversity. We investigate the range of structural and chemical defences of thistles (tribe Cardueae), which comprise herbaceous species with a wide spectrum of defensive traits. We collected structural and chemical trait data across species and leaf ages from field collections, herbarium specimens and the literature. Species' young leaves tend to produce similar suites of traits, with greater interspecific variation in older leaves. Young leaves are dominated by chemical defences, while older leaves produce a broader range of both chemical and physical defence traits. Leaf spininess is associated with a distinct chemical profile that differs from that of non‐spiny species. Our study demonstrates how defence strategies can vary across the leaves of herbaceous species and their ages. Expanding such efforts will be critical to further our macroevolutionary understanding of variation in plant defences. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

ABSTRACT This article theorizes epistemic gatekeeping as a racialized colonial mechanism through which academic authority regulates the boundaries of legitimate knowledge in Global South feminist and postcolonial scholarship. Focusing on Iran, this study argues that methodological nationalism and methodological nationalist feminism construct “Iranian women” as a singular, Persian‐coded subject, thereby naturalizing internal hierarchies of race, language, and region and rendering ethnoracial minority women epistemically unintelligible. Drawing on decolonial accounts of coloniality and the coloniality of gender, together with work on epistemic injustice and resistance, I conceptualize epistemic gatekeeping along three mutually reinforcing dimensions: knowledge producers (who is authorized to theorize), knowledge frames (what counts as “Iran,” “feminism,” and “womanhood”), and knowledge solicitation (whose voices are invited, heard, and validated as theoretical rather than merely experiential). Empirically, the article employs qualitative interviews with Azerbaijani women activists and writers, alongside autoethnographic reflection, to examine feminist organizing in and around the women‐led cultural center El‐Evi in Tabriz. Their practices of translation, memory writing, literary production, and women's libraries constitute forms of epistemic resistance that refuse both Eurocentric and Persian‐centric regimes of knowledge, unsettling nation‐bound and Persian‐dominant constructions of “Iranian womanhood.” The article thus rethinks “womanhood” in Global South studies as a contested, internally stratified category and argues that decolonizing academia requires not simply adding minoritized women to existing archives, but transforming the epistemic architectures through which theory, subjecthood, and legitimacy are defined in the first place.

Recent articles and news blogs have been written about nuclear waste management, specifically focusing on the alleged hazards of iodine-129. Here, we objectively review the specific details of iodine-129 as a radiation hazard. In contrast with the alarmist tone of these recent papers and news items, we conclude that iodine-129 is not nearly as concerning as has been projected. Rather, it appears to be a classic case of “much ado about nothing”.

Abstract Informal caregiving continues to increase, and caregivers are becoming more diverse, prompting continued efforts to examine the impact of informal caregiving. Focusing on caregivers in the higher education landscape is beginning to gain more traction as the impact of population aging and caregiver diversity becomes more evident. Supporting faculty and staff caregivers in higher education is essential for fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment, allowing them to more effectively balance professional and caregiving responsibilities. The evidence-based age-inclusivity domains of higher education (AIDHE) model guides institutions of higher education in assessing age-inclusive practices that impact faculty and staff across seven domains of institutional function. Data from a campus-wide caregiving study revealed that nearly one in four employees (24.6%) identified as caregivers, most commonly to aging parents and spouses. Stress from caregiving, work conflicts, and care for others in the household were cited as limiting caregiving ability. Approximately half (47.5%) experienced low quality of life due to lacking caregiver support. The majority (58.5%) were unaware of support services for caregiving. The experiences of faculty and staff caregivers highlight the need for better recognition and support services from institutions of higher education. Based on study findings and framed through the lens of the AIDHE model, recommendations will be made for universities to capitalize on pre-existing campus programs and resources, and to develop new age-inclusive programs and practices to effectively respond to the needs of faculty and staff caregivers.

Purpose The US Supreme Court ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cannot limit education-related benefits that colleges provide student-athletes, including the ability to earn money from their name, image and likeness (National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, 2021). Supporters of collegiate athletics then began establishing organizations to support NIL activities and to pay student-athletes. This paper aims to examine the ethical and legal implications of this. Design/methodology/approach Because this is a practitioner/viewpoint paper, and because this paper reviews the case law regarding this topic as well as the ethical implications of the topic, the design/methodology/approach followed here is a legal and ethical analysis of the topic. Findings The history of these collectives, and examining the collectives through the lens of charitable giving as encouraged by the IRS, including charitable giving within an educational setting, is presented. The paper also discusses the interplay between relevant NCAA rules and IRS regulations, with a description of how universities are responding. Finally, the cases that apply to this situation are reviewed, with a focus on the ethical and legal implications of this practice and the paper concludes with questions regarding the ethics of this practice, as well as what the future holds for these collectives. Originality/value This issue is timely and topical because it is currently being debated, and the paper is original in that the ethical dimensions of this topic are considered, including a discussion regarding how this issue could be resolved.

This chapter per the authors is to address the topic of engagement and motivation. In online courses, the interaction of the faculty and coaches with students is critical. The aim of this chapter is to promote a “stellar” experience for the students. The root of best practices in online education is putting the students first. While this can sound daunting, in reality it means addressing some basic principles of teaching along with the incorporation of faculty immediacy, faculty presence, engagement, and motivation principles. Online students want to know there is a “live” faculty/coach available to interact with during the course. Online students do not want to feel as if teaching the course to oneself.

Abstract VV 191 is a nearby (z ∼ 0.05), overlapping (occulting) galaxy pair, where a multiple-armed spiral galaxy is backlit by an elliptical galaxy. The overlap is used to derive and map dust attenuation in two James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam filters (F090W and F150W) and one visible-band Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 filter (F606W). We present maps of the attenuation in each filter, the ratio of total to selective attenuation with a near-infrared (NIR) color excess, R V I ˜ , and the NIR attenuation curve power-law index, α, approximated via Monte Carlo resampling methods. The maps trace the optically thin outer disk of foreground galaxy VV 191b at ∼100 pc physical resolution. We find the distributions of attenuation and R V I ˜ to be close to log-normal, and the distribution of α to be close to Gaussian throughout the disk and in high signal-to-noise ratio areas of VV191b. We analyze three spatially resolved handpicked regions in the far outer disk that are well backlit by the background galaxy.

SummaryPotential and realized climate change‐driven phenological mismatches have been reported across a variety of pairwise species' interactions. However, species often engage in more than one type of temporally structured interaction – therefore, the consequences of phenological shifts must be evaluated in this context.Synthesizing data from natural history collections, community science initiatives, and remote‐sensing platforms, we analyzed the phenology of the flowering of an understory spring ephemeral species, the emergence of its specialist pollinator, and the closure of the canopy above. We determined how variation in phenological responses to climate across these interacting guilds impacts the potential pollination window of the spring ephemerals.We demonstrate that phenological responses to climate change can vary greatly among the three guilds across their interacting range. The potential pollination window was predicted to undergo divergent shifts among ecoregions across the landscape in the near future, which can impact the fitness and reproductive success of both flowers and pollinators.Our study represents a first step toward integrating phenological knowledge across multiple interacting guilds. Expanding such efforts will be critical to improving our ability to predict how ecosystems, communities, and the ecological interactions therein will be impacted by global change.