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The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant disruptions in traditional educational policies and practices worldwide. The study adopted an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens to investigate the impact of the pandemic on international students in a Canadian university. The findings from data analysis identified challenges and supports for international students in five areas: academic, financial, health and well-being, socialization, and housing and accommodation. There were several gaps between international students' academic and social needs during the pandemic and the institutional support. While the university prioritized supports in the academic domain, international students identified social challenges as more significant during the pandemic. The gap was also evident in communicating institutional support to students, as some students were not aware of the spectrum of institutional services. Finally, there was a need for more targeted support for international students. The pandemic called for more fundamental and comprehensive actions to support the diverse student population.

The genus Acrossocheilus is composed of small- to medium-sized barbine species and is distributed in Laos, Vietnam, Hainan, Taiwan and mainland China. To verify the molecular phylogeny of the genus Acrossocheilus, we report a new whole mitogenome of A. longipinnis, which provides new insights to better understand the taxonomic status of Acrossocheilus fishes. Phylogenetic trees presented two major clades based on whole mitogenomic data from sixteen Acrossocheilus species. Clade I is the ancestral group, including A. monticola and A. yunnanensis. The remaining species form clade II, which can be separated into two subclades (subclades A and B) with strong support. Subclade B clusters indicate that A. longipinnis forms a monophyletic group with A. iridescens and A. barbodon. Landscape evolution can strongly affect the evolutionary diversification of freshwater fishes. The Nanling and Wuyi Mountains, Taiwan Strait and Qiongzhou Strait played a key role in the geographical barriers for Acrossocheilus diversification. Our results improve our understanding of Acrossocheilus mitogenome structure and evolution, which will be useful for phylogenetic analysis and species identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Polyalthiopsis Chaowasku (Annonaceae) was a poorly known monotypic genus from Vietnam that was recently segregated from the highly polyphyletic genus Polyalthia s.l. The sister clade relationship between Polyalthiopsis and Miliusa was not well established in previous study. The phylogenetic position of two Polyalthia spp. from China, P. chinensis S.K.Wu ex P.T.Li and P. verrucipes C.Y.Wu ex P.T.Li, remains unresolved and is shown here to be phylogenetically affiliated with Polyalthiopsis. Phylogenetic analyses of six chloroplast regions (matK, ndhF, psbA-trnH, rbcL, trnL-F and ycf1; ca.7.3 kb, 60 accessions) unambiguously placed Polyalthia chinensis and P. verrucipes in the same clade with Polyalthiopsis floribunda (PP = 1, MP BS = 97%); the entire clade is sister to Miliusa with weak to strong support (PP = 1, MP BS = 54%). Polyalthia chinensis and P. verrucipes share several diagnostic characters with Polyalthiopsis floribunda, including the raised midrib on the upper surface of the leaf in vivo, conspicuous foliar glands when dried, petiole with transverse striations when dried and axillary inflorescences. The two species differ from Polyalthiopsis floribunda in having fewer flowers per inflorescence, longer linear petals and two ovules per carpel. On the basis of the combined molecular phylogenetic and morphological data, we propose two new combinations, Polyalthiopsis chinensis (S.K.Wu ex P.T.Li) B.Xue & Y.H.Tan and Polyalthiopsis verrucipes (C.Y.Wu ex P.T.Li) B.Xue & Y.H.Tan. The protologue of Polyalthia verrucipes did not include a description of the flowers, which we provide here. An updated description for the genus Polyalthiopsis and a key to species in the genus Polyalthiopsis is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]