Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

The very first issue that the MJE/RSEM published sixty years ago was on activism.How appropriate that sixty years later, to mark the longevity of the journal's contribution to the field of education, we are publishing a special issue that also engages with activism.When we, as guest editors, first issued the call for this special issue, sociocultural and political changes were transforming the global landscape of education (Nieto, 2017;Sleeter, 2024;Vertovec, 2023)-and nearing the issue's publication, they are doing so again, and with renewed force.Teachers have increasingly been expected to critically understand, respond to, and teach through and for diversity in ways that go beyond surface-level approaches.Recognizing that diversity is a complex construct that encompasses but is not limited to culture, language, religion, gender, sex, age, ability, race, and ethnicity (Banks & Banks, 2019), educators face the challenge of fostering inclusive and equitable learning environments.This involves not only acknowledging and valuing students' diverse identities and experiences and ensuring that students' cultural and linguistic experiences and perspectives are reflected in the curriculum, but implementing pedagogical approaches that provide meaningful learning opportunities for all students (Beaudoin, 2024).Our special issue focuses on reimagining teacher education in Northern contexts in times of growing neo-conservativism and neoliberalism that threaten the expectations mapped out in our opening paragraph.Our particular focus is on the "North", broadly defined as the Global North, though not necessarily understood geographically; we consider perspectives from diverse sites: Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, and Norway, this in the form of nine articles and one Note from the Field.The issue is timely, as neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism gain new ground globally and in education.Neo-conservative groups tend to construe diversity as a threat to political and social stability, framing it negatively as

Background: Leading sports medicine and nutrition organizations recommend replacing sodium losses during prolonged exercise; however, practical guidance for implementing sodium replacement strategies remains limited. Estimating sodium needs during exercise requires assessment of both whole-body sweat sodium concentration (WBSSC) and sweat rate. Objectives: This study focused on WBSSC by examining its temporal stability, reproducibility, and predictability during prolonged cycling exercise while drinking according to two hydration strategies. Methods: Using a randomized, crossover, counterbalanced design, eight highly trained men completed two 5 h cycling sessions (183 ± 14 W, 30 °C) while consuming fluids either in a programmed (P) or ad libitum (AL) fashion. Sweat was collected with patches applied on the forearm for ~20 min before sampling, which occurred at ~40, 130, 220, and 290 min. Local sweat sodium concentration was converted to WBSSC using a validated equation. Results: A main effect of time was observed for WBSSC (p < 0.05), with only the 40 min time point differing from later measurements; no condition or interaction effects were detected. The within-trial typical variation in WBSSC was 7.2 mmol·L-1 for P and 6.1 mmol·L-1 for AL, while the between-trial typical variation was 5.6 mmol·L-1. The WBSSC measured at 40 min predicted mean exercise WBSSC with good precision and moderate stability (y = 0.2738 + 1.3397x, R2 = 0.87, standard error of the estimate = 5.4 mmol·L-1, 95% confidence interval slope = 0.82-1.86 mmol·L-1). Conclusions: These findings indicate that during prolonged cycling exercise, WBSSC (1) varies trivially within and between trials; (2) can reasonably be predicted using a single sweat sample and; (3) is not influenced by P or AL drinking.

Boreal forests play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle, but carbon and energy fluxes are still poorly constrained because of complex disturbance histories and a limited number of observation stations throughout remote northern landscapes. The La Romaine watershed in Quebec has undergone extensive hydroelectric development, including dam construction and related land-cover changes. We aim to use a land surface model to quantify the impact of land cover changes from natural and anthropogenic disturbances on net ecosystem productivity (NEP), gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and latent heat flux. In the initial phase of this study, plant functional types (PFTs) were derived from ESA-CCI land-cover data and used to drive site-level simulations with the Canadian Land Surface Scheme Including Biogeochemical Cycles (CLASSIC) together with ERA5 reanalysis data.The simulations produced daily time series of NEP, GPP, ER, and net latent heat flux, depicting typical boreal seasonality with strong summer season peaks and snow-dominated dormant seasons. GPP presents a pronounced rise in late spring, while high in mid-summer, but falloff in autumn, whereas ER trailed temperature closely, led to periods of reduced but non-zero C losses during the winter season. Moreover, NEP is characterized by comparatively short windows of net C uptake when photosynthesis surpasses respiration, with longer, milder spring and autumn transition periods and winters with near-neutral or net C loss, while latent heat flux varies with growing-season productivity and moisture availability, signifying a tight coupling between carbon uptake and evapotranspiration.​​We show that satellite-derived PFTs with ERA5 reanalysis forcing enable process-based exploration of boreal C and energy dynamics in a remote hydropower complex, even in the absence of dense local measurements. Ongoing work will replace the ESA-CCI PFTs with high-resolution (Landsat 30m resolution), Romaine-specific LULC-derived PFTs and refine the forcing, paving the way to link simulated flux responses with the observation’s ones in the La Romaine watershed.​

Abstract Postmortem human brains stored in brain banks are important research resources to study the mechanisms underlying normal brain functions as well as various neurodegenerative disorders. Immunohistochemical (IHC) and histochemical (HC) staining have been used to examine human brains post-fixed in neutral-buffered formalin (NBF) for months, years, and even decades. As such, it is essential to establish the effects of prolonged post-fixation in NBF on both IHC and HC stains. Previously, we found that prolonged NBF post-fixation resulted in differential effects on IHC and HC staining on postmortem brains. In this study, we further examined the effects of prolonged post-fixation on IHC stains targeting 6 antigens and 2 HC stains of known biomarkers of cerebrovascular diseases in prefrontal cortex of human brains post-fixed for 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. The IHC targets included microvasculature markers of the blood brain barrier (Collagen-IV and Claudin-5), a type III intermediate filament marker (Vimentin), an activated microglia marker (CD68), a biomarker for oligodendrocytic myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) and a marker for iron accumulation (Ferritin). The HC included Masson’s Trichrome Stain (MTS) and Bielschowsky silver stain (BSS). We found that staining intensities of Ferritin, Vimentin, Collagen-IV and BSS decreased with prolonged post-fixation, while no significant differences were observed in the staining intensity of other markers. Hence, these differential alterations should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results from processed tissues with prolonged post-fixation. We recommend performing IHC and HC staining for human brains with the same post-fixation times to offset any impact on downstream neuropathological analyses, as well as adding the post-fixation duration as a covariate in the analysis.