  We compute the renormalization group flow of the mass anomalous dimension in
adjoint QCD with $N_{f}=1$, $3/2$, and 2 Dirac fermions, using the gradient
flow. Preliminary results are in agreement with at least a near-conformal
scenario in all cases. At the largest flavor numbers we obtain the strongest
indication for an IR conformal fixed point scenario. Moreover, we provide
results for the thermal phase transitions in SU(3) supersymmetric Yang-Mills
theory. We find hints for a connection between chiral and center symmetries in
terms of a single first order phase transition where chiral symmetry is
restored and center symmetry gets broken.
