Sustainability

Currently, a significant proportion of young people are discouraged by the teaching of botany and, consequently, show little interest in preserving local biodiversity. On the other hand, with the recurrent use of digital technologies (DTs), young people have shown significant interest in virtual devices. Our project's tested the hypothesis whether plants awareness disparity in public school students was overcome through active teaching and learning. Thus, the objective was to investigate the use of active methodology in a non-formal teaching environment (e.g., sensory garden, SG) in order to stimulate learning in plant organography based on its evaluation using digital games. Our proposal was investigated at the Lagoa do Sino campus (Buri/SP, Brazil) in partnership with the Public School System of the Municipality of Campina do Monte Alegre/SP, Brazil. Furthermore, students were divided into two teams, which applied qualitative methodologies, such as that one of these (Team A) had face-to-face contact with the SG, using the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) methodology, digital game and survey. Team B, on the other hand, will only have contact with the game. After collecting the data, we verified statistically significant differences between the teams using the Wilcoxon test and based on the latent traits evaluated. Given this, the literature points out that discouraging students influences their learning and, consequently, their education. In addition, our considerations are based on the latent trait knowledge of botany and, thus, we reject our null hypothesis and accept our alternative hypothesis. On the other hand, based on the latent trait of plant perception, we cannot affirm the acceptance or rejection of the hypotheses. It is worth noting that future studies should have a larger number of participants than this research in order to better evaluate what is intended.

Extensive green roofs are an important component of urban green infrastructure. However, harsh rooftop conditions, including shallow substrates, high temperatures and limited water availability, considerably restrict plant selection. Although extensive green roofs are traditionally dominated by succulent species, increasing attention has been directed towards annual plants because of their rapid establishment, developmental plasticity and potential contribution to vegetation diversity. This review aimed to identify annual plant species introduced on extensive green roofs and to characterize the functional traits most frequently associated with their establishment under rooftop conditions. In addition, the review examined the geographical distribution and methodological characteristics of existing studies and identified species with potential for application under temperate climatic conditions. A total of 22 studies published between 2015 and 2025 were analyzed, comprising 100 annual species representing 29 plant families. The reviewed studies showed a clear geographical bias towards Mediterranean and arid regions, whereas temperate climates were considerably underrepresented. Among species occurring in Central Europe, ruderal life strategies, drought avoidance, efficient dispersal mechanisms, low plant height and prolonged flowering were the most frequently observed functional characteristics, while seed mass and specific leaf area (SLA) exhibited substantial interspecific variation. These findings suggest that functional traits, rather than taxonomic affiliation alone, provide a useful framework for selecting annual species for extensive green roofs. The review also highlights the need for long-term studies conducted under temperate climatic conditions to improve evidence-based plant selection and support the development of resilient and multifunctional green roof vegetation.

The health and wellbeing of living organisms and the environment are irrevocably interconnected. Animals constantly shape the environments in which they live, and environmental factors, in turn, shape the minds and behaviours of animals. The emerging discipline of environmental neuroscience studies this reciprocal interaction and offers a unique opportunity to integrate sustainability into undergraduate training. Here, we present and evaluate Forging Sustainable Research, an interdisciplinary undergraduate course that integrates teaching of neuroscience, biology, psychology, environmental science, and sustainable development. Students explore how research in these fields can be interlinked 24 and re-oriented towards addressing emerging environmental challenges. In parallel, students learn how to measure and mitigate the environmental impact of research activities. Student feedback suggests that the course is effective at raising awareness and understanding of sustainability in research, while also enhancing student perception of their own ability to promote positive change. As climate and ecosystem change impact all sectors, sustainability awareness in academic and professional spaces is increasingly sought after. Students in the course therefore receive training in transferable skills relevant for diverse career paths. In the long term, this course may serve as model for direct integration of sustainability training into undergraduate curricula in the natural sciences.

Funding and publishing scientific research has become increasingly competitive, highlighting a growing need for clear and accurate scientific communication. Scientific editors are professionals who help ensure that grant proposals and research manuscripts meet the standards of funding agencies and peer-reviewed journals while effectively communicating research significance to diverse audiences. However, detailed information characterizing the scientific editing profession is scarce. While some organizations have conducted salary surveys, to our knowledge, no comprehensive survey of the scientific editing field has been conducted. Here, we report findings from a 2024 comprehensive survey of 132 scientific editors. We collected data on demographics and education, career experience and current employment, skills and types of editing, and outcomes and satisfaction. Our data reveal that scientific editors have homogenous demographic characteristics but considerable variability in job titles, employment mechanisms, and career pathways. As the responsibilities of many scientific editors, including supporting proposal development, applying best practices in grantsmanship, and identifying strategies to enhance competitiveness for research funding, overlap with those of research development professionals, our findings provide considerations for further incorporating or defining the role of scientific editors within research development offices. Our results also suggest avenues for scientific editors to start or advance their careers. We anticipate that our results will serve as a foundation for discussions on the future directions of the scientific editing profession as well as areas for future research and professional development.

Background: Neuroanatomy poses a significant challenge for Psychology students due to its spatial and conceptual complexity. Educational approaches that enhance the relevance and visualization of neuroanatomical content may improve students learning experiences. This study implemented a tractography-based activity focused on the virtual dissection of the arcuate fasciculus, a major white matter pathway, in undergraduate Psychology students and examined the relationships between perceived learning and students perceptions of utility, difficulty and handling, and organizational aspects of the activity. Methods: First-year undergraduate Psychology students participated in a two-session tractography-based activity combining instruction on white matter anatomy and diffusion tractography with a hands-on virtual dissection of the arcuate fasciculus using research-grade software routinely employed in neuroscience research. Following the activity, students completed an anonymous questionnaire assessing perceived learning, utility, difficulty and handling, and organizational aspects of the activity. Pearson correlations, multiple regression analyses, and relative importance analyses were performed. Results: Sixty-eight students completed the questionnaire. Students reported generally positive perceptions of the activity across the evaluated dimensions, with perceived learning receiving the highest mean score (M = 3.44, SD = .85). Perceived utility showed the strongest association with perceived learning (r = .64, p < .001). The regression model explained 41% of the variance in perceived learning (R2 = .41, adjusted R2 = .38, p < .001). Perceived utility was the only significant predictor in the model ({beta} = .59, p = .001), accounting for 67.9% of the explained variance. Conclusions: The findings support the feasibility of integrating authentic neuroimaging tools into undergraduate neuroanatomy teaching. Students who perceived the activity as more useful also reported higher perceived learning outcomes, with perceived utility emerging as the strongest predictor of perceived learning. In contrast, perceived difficulty and handling, and organizational aspects did not make significant independent contributions. These results suggest that students perceptions of educational relevance may play an important role in technology-enhanced STEM learning experiences.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the floristic composition and site characteristics of four peat bogs in Bucovina, Romania: Poiana Stampei, Romanesti, Saru Dornei, and Gaina-Lucina. The research was based on phytosociological releves on 25 msq plots and direct field phenological observations, on six field visits from May to August 2026. Vegetation was characterised using the Braun Blanquet method, and floristic similarity between sites was assessed with the Sorensen and Bray Curtis indices. All four plots shared a common core of taxa characteristic of peatland vegetation: Sphagnum spp., Carex rostrata, Drosera rotundifolia, Eriophorum vaginatum, and Vaccinium species. Species richness was 13 taxa at Poiana Stampei, Romanesti, and Saru Dornei, and 12 at Gaina-Lucina. Romanesti and Saru Dornei showed the highest floristic similarity (descriptive values, not statistically tested, given a single releve per site), while Gaina-Lucina differed most markedly, not through species richness, which was similar across sites, but through species identity and through the presence of Betula nana, a glacial relict absent from the other sites. The results provide a descriptive basis for future research on the floristic composition and conservation of these habitats.

Purpose: The internship period is a critical stage for nursing students to develop professional values. This study aimed to investigate the current status of professional identity among nursing interns, analyze the effects of social support, perceived stress, psychological resilience, and career adaptability on professional identity, and explore the mediating role of career adaptability between social support and professional identity, so as to provide empirical evidence for enhancing professional identity and optimizing nursing talent training systems. Methods: Using convenience sampling, 407 nursing interns from a tertiary hospital in Quanzhou were selected as participants from May to July 2025. Data were collected using a general information questionnaire, the Social Support Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Psychological Resilience Scale, the Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nursing Students, the Career Adaptability Scale, and the Questionnaire for Nurse Intention to Retention Employed. SPSS 26.0 was used for reliability analysis, descriptive analysis, independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis. The PROCESS macro was employed to test the mediating effect. Results: The total score of professional identity among nursing interns was (61.74{+/-}11.08), with 73.5% showing moderate professional identity. Parents' attitude toward nursing, reasons for choosing the profession, personal attitude toward the major, and employment intention showed statistically significant differences in professional identity scores (p<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis revealed that professional identity was significantly positively correlated with social support (r=0.474), psychological resilience (r=0.389), and career adaptability (r=0.609) (p<0.01), and significantly negatively correlated with perceived stress (r=-0.378) (p<0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that career adaptability ({beta}=0.309, p<0.001) and social support ({beta}=0.383, p<0.001) were significant positive predictors of professional identity, whereas reasons for choosing the profession ({beta}=-3.603, p=0.001) and employment intention ({beta}=-7.116, p<0.001) were significant negative predictors. The model explained 49.2% of the variance in professional identity. Mediation effect analysis showed that career adaptability played a partial mediating role between social support and professional identity, with a mediation effect value of 0.288 (95% CI: 0.221-0.363), accounting for 40.2% of the total effect. Conclusions: Nursing interns' professional identity is at a moderately high level. Social support and career adaptability are positive influencing factors. Career adaptability plays a partial mediating role between social support and professional identity; social support indirectly enhances professional identity by strengthening career adaptability.

Environmental concerns and the need to mitigate the effects of climate change have driven the adoption of renewable energy sources, such as offshore wind farms (OWFs), making it essential to assess their overlap with seabird habitats to estimate potential impacts. This study is the first to estimate the vulnerability of coastal and seabirds to OWFs at a national scale by integrating biological trait data from the literature, spatial occurrence records from citizen science platforms, and expert knowledge (elicited from 23 specialists) into established quantitative risk frameworks. Collision risk and susceptibility scores were calculated at the family and subfamily levels, as well as disturbance and displacement indices by species and susceptibility by state. The groups with the highest collision risk and susceptibility were Fregatidae (0.354; 0.486), Sulidae (0.199; 0.419), Sterninae (0.190; 0.384) and Diomedeidae (0.190; 0.416). The extreme risk for Fregatidae is driven by their specific flight characteristics, with impacts concentrated in the highly frequented southeast and northeast regions. Regarding disturbance and displacement, Limnodromus griseus exhibited the highest national score (MMA: 0.098), while Diomedea dabbenena had the highest global score (IUCN: 0.092), highlighting the critical need to integrate both regional and global conservation statuses. Spatially, the state exhibiting the highest overall vulnerability to OWF impacts was Rio Grande do Sul (23.78; 10.69), a critical hotspot characterized by high species richness and oceanographic productivity. These findings establish an indispensable national baseline for Marine Spatial Planning, reinforcing the need for targeted pre-installation assessments, the identification of sentinel species, and spatially differentiated management during environmental licensing processes.

Abstract Unplanned Extubation is a frequent adverse event in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs), that is associated with increased morbidity, prolonged hospitalization and financial costs. Evidence suggests that unplanned extubation (UE) is preventable through the management of its risk factors. Many modifiable UE risk factors are directly related to nursing care, thus empowering nurses through education can improve neonatal safety outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured educational intervention in improving nurses knowledge and practices related to UE in NICUs. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was conducted in two tertiary hospitals in northern Jordan. One hospital is university-affiliated and one is governmental hospital. Participating Nurses in the selected settings received a four-week multimodal educational intervention related to UE. The intervention comprised of face-face session, WhatsApp-based educational messages, educational videos and placement of a poster in the NICU. Knowledge and practices of 58 nurses were assessed at baseline, post intervention and one month later using a validated questionnaire and direct observation. A baseline rate of UE was also measured in both settings with rate of 5 events per 100 ventilator days in the university-affiliated compared to 32 events per 100 ventilator days in governmental hospital. Repeated-measures and mixed-design ANOVA revealed significant improvements in nurses knowledge in both settings with a large effect size (p{superscript 2} = .60). Also, the observed preventive practices scores also improved significantly and remained elevated at one-month follow-up (p{superscript 2} = .50). Older age was associated with lower baseline knowledge, though this was diminished post study intervention. Whereas no demographic variables were associated with practice scores. The high rates of UE highlight the need for quality improvement. Study findings suggest that UE-focused education is a feasible and cost-effective strategy for strengthening neonate nurses competencies regarding safer care for mechanically ventilated neonates in the NICUs.

Community-led urban greening may contribute to neighborhood safety, but its relationship with crime remains uncertain. We examined whether Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Project GreenSpaces in Indianapolis were associated with changes in violence and total crime. We used a matched-pair difference-in-differences design comparing funded sites with matched unfunded applicant sites. The primary analysis included 29 matched pairs with two years of pre- and post-grant follow-up. Monthly Part I violent offenses and total crime within 600-m buffers were modeled using Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood. In the first post-grant year, the violent-crime estimate was lower but imprecise (IRR, 0.903; 95% CI, 0.805-1.014). In the second post-grant year, the relative rate was lower (IRR, 0.830; 95% CI, 0.718-0.961). Total crime estimates showed no clear post-grant change. Additional analyses indicated some sensitivity to spatial scale, but no sustained divergence in pre-grant crime patterns. Analyses of short-term crime dependence showed clear month-to-month persistence in violent crime within sites but limited evidence of stable spatial dependence across nearby sites. Therefore, within the two-year post-grant period examined, Project GreenSpaces was associated most consistently with lower relative violent-crime rates in the second year, while no corresponding decrease was observed for total recorded crime. Longer follow-up is needed to determine whether these patterns persist or change as projects mature.

Urban green infrastructure is increasingly promoted as a public-health intervention, yet the biological features that determine exposure to potentially beneficial plant-derived volatile compounds remain poorly understood. Here we quantified airborne terpenes and terpenoids across five contrasting urban greenspaces in Oxford, UK, and related chemical profiles to plant diversity, vegetation structure and surrounding habitat characteristics. Ambient air samples collected across spring and summer were analysed by thermal-desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, alongside field surveys of taxonomic richness, canopy cover, vegetation volume and ground composition. Terpene and terpenoid scentscapes differed strongly among sites and through time, with monoterpenes dominating detected profiles. Sites with greater plant richness and greater vegetation volume below 1.5 m consistently showed higher terpene/terpenoid abundance, whereas total vegetation volume, canopy cover and tree abundance were weaker and less consistent predictors. These relationships were specific to plant-associated chemical classes and were not observed for predominantly anthropogenic volatile compounds. These patterns were resolved across only five independent sampling sites, and the relationships reported here should therefore be considered exploratory. Our findings suggest that human exposure to plant-derived volatiles in cities may be maximised not simply by increasing tree cover, but by designing biodiverse, structurally complex lower-to-mid-storey vegetation within the breathing zone. These results provide an empirical basis for incorporating scentscape ecology into health-oriented urban greenspace design.

Interest in mentoring remains widespread within the scientific community, as mentorship is considered crucial to developing the scientific workforce. A longstanding focus on the positive aspects of mentorship obscures the reality that some mentoring relationships may be ineffective, counterproductive, or harmful. Progress has been limited by the absence of a scale capable of measuring both the positive and negative mentoring experiences of doctoral students. We addressed this need by developing a new scale: the Mentoring Experiences in Research and Graduate Education (MERGE). Results of three sequential multi-method studies (total N = 1,308) provide evidence for: (a) the content and response process validity of the MERGE; (b) a six-factor structure capturing the range of mentoring experiences; (c) negative mentoring experiences as empirically distinct from the absence of positive mentoring; (d) convergent, discriminant and criterion-related validity of the MERGE, with each factor demonstrating unique patterns of association with outcomes; and (e) the incremental validity of the MERGE in predicting outcomes beyond an existing measure of mentoring competence. We conclude by discussing implications for the use of the scale in doctoral education, including both theory advancement and applied practice.

Abstract Objective: Physician-scientists are a diminishing subset of the pediatrician work force, uniquely trained to advance child health through scientific discovery. The current financial landscape of academic medical centers makes traditional resource-intensive training programs untenable. Continued renewal of this critical pediatric workforce requires new resource-efficient methodologies. Thus, we evaluated the impact of the NICHD supported Vanderbilt K12 program, a personalized, intensive training program. Study Design: We tracked academic outcomes for scholars with K12 appointments between January 2015 and December 2022. Our primary outcome was receipt of a mentored career development award (K08 or K23). Successful transition from mentored to independent NIH funding (K to R transition) was used as a secondary outcome. Academic outcomes for faculty participating in a large, institutional training program, the Vanderbilt Faculty Research Scholars program (VFRS), served as a comparison cohort. A complementary qualitative evaluation of the K12 program was performed. Results: K12 scholars earned career development awards (73%) at an equivalent rate to VFRS faculty (71%) and transitioned K to R funding at equivalent rates, 45% of K12 scholars compared to 50% for VFRS. Qualitative analysis demonstrated K12 scholars valued a personalized training program that incorporated self-efficacy and adaptability, key tenets of Social Cognitive Career Theory. Conclusion: Personalized physician-scientist training programs may enhance efficient utilization of research resources in Pediatric academic departments and serve as a viable alternative to traditional programs. Our qualitative evaluation suggests scholar self-efficacy and adaptability can be achieved through a personalized training program.

An increasing number of researchers, educators, and at-home growers are turning to hydroponics as an alternative method of food production, diversifying and strengthening the food supply chain. This has led to a substantial increase in the amount of academic work involving hydroponic production of plants for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to a more controlled and customizable environment than conventional production methods, utilizing hydroponics as a method of wastewater treatment, and investigating the vertical production of plants on a much smaller footprint than traditional commercial-scale production. Because so many unique stakeholders are interested in hydroponics for a variety of reasons, academic studies use a wide variety of hydroponic systems with varying levels of technology and automation, making comparisons across studies and systems challenging. A few institutions have sophisticated plant growth and research facilities, like those used by commercial companies, but these systems are often prohibitively expensive, costing upwards of $10,000 USD for a very limited amount of growing space for experimental trials. To enable more researchers, educators, and citizen scientists to conduct experiments and easily compare their results, this study details three pilot-scale hydroponic production systems (Kratky, NFT, and DWC), utilizing entirely off-the-shelf components, for under $5,000 USD each, that are capable of maintaining the desired consistent temperature and relative humidity levels, and have space for 216, 108 (6 irrigation loops), and 64 (16 irrigation bins) plants, respectively. The material lists and prices are provided along with assembly instructions and general guidelines for each hydroponic system. The testing and optimization process of environmental conditions within each growth system is also detailed, with suggested customizations for potential experimental setups. The authors developed these systems during their Masters and Doctoral degree programs, enabling improved hydroponic research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They hope that other aspiring hydroponic researchers can benefit from this work in the development and operation of their hydroponic systems, increasing research efficiency and collaboration opportunities in this field of study.

1. As city populations expand globally, understanding how urbanization shapes ecosystem services is increasingly important. Urban agriculture plays a key role in food access, particularly in low-income areas with limited access to fresh produce. Arthropods play important roles in these systems through pollination, herbivory, pest control, and nutrient cycling. Urban development of natural areas often reduces biodiversity, including that of arthropods. Additionally, urban biodiversity frequently correlates positively with socioeconomic conditions, a pattern known as the luxury effect. 2. In this study, we examined how gradients in urbanization and socioeconomic context relate to local and landscape habitat quality, arthropod abundance, and pollination services across 21 community gardens in the Denver, CO Metro Area. To quantify ecosystem services, we employed a sentinel plant, Cucumis sativus (cucumber), and collected arthropods (insects, myriapods, arachnids, isopods), assigning them to functional groups based on their known feeding behavior. We evaluated direct and indirect pathways linking urban matrix characteristics to arthropod-mediated ecosystem services. 3. The abundance of all arthropod groups (including pollinators, herbivores, and natural enemies) declined steeply with increasing impervious surface. Neighborhood wealth was associated only with bee species richness and Shannon diversity and displayed a hump-shaped pattern that peaked at wealth levels 35-46% above the national average, then declined. Multivariate GLMs revealed that Western honeybees (Apis mellifera) were the only species driving differences in bee community composition, with their abundance positively related to neighborhood wealth. 4. We also observed pollen limitation in our cucumber plants, and as bee Shannon diversity increased, cucumber production increased. Environmental covariates alone showed no direct relationship with cucumber production, indicating that insect pollination mediated this effect. This work identifies the biophysical and social-ecological drivers of urban arthropod biodiversity and ecosystem services, revealing where crop production may be most vulnerable to decline in cities.

Soil degradation is a widespread challenge that requires a broad response at the individual farm level. To ensure effectivity, the practices should be tailored to the farm context: land manager objectives and farm specific challenges. These have however been difficult to quantify. Here we demonstrate that a workable farm context can be created based on a value survey, open satellite and soil data, and published models for vegetation gross primary productivity and soil erosion. Based on the findings, despite individual differences, farmers value profitability and operational efficiency, but also biodiversity and soil health. At least the regenerative farmers surveyed also value working for the greater good more than maintaining tradition or power. In spite of wide differences in farm production orientation, we also found that each farm also had a broad variation in individual fields GPP. Most fields have a stable GPP level, which is either high or low, and that there is a 2-3-fold difference between the weakest and best producing fields indicating the potential for improving GPP by improving the growing conditions on currently weak fields. In addition, soil loss was found to be highly concentrated in critical source areas, where 10% of the field area contributed to 50% of the soil loss. Overall, open data can be linked to modelling workflows to rapidly produce a decision-making context for farmers. This facilitates benchmarking and co-learning as well as enables land managers and advisors to identify the farm context for planning effective responses to soil degradation.

Despite the use of technological countermeasures, studies show that the sensory conflict, and thus symptoms of motion sickness such as nausea, cannot be completely prevented while traveling as a car passenger. Accordingly, reliable prediction of motion sickness will represent a possible solution for intelligent vehicles to avoid the abortion of the drive, e.g., through adapted driving strategies or route planning. In previous works, the authors were able to demonstrate an application-oriented parameter set for the popular 6DOF-SVC model to estimate motion sickness incidence (MSI) in passengers with a lowered gaze on a non-driving-related task. In the current study, these parameters were validated and further optimized using five previous conducted motion sickness driving experiments. For the first time, it is also shown that the expected natural MSI fluctuations based on the driving dynamic profile, due to route characteristics or driving style, as well as the variation in experimental determined MSI is approximately 10%. Moreover, findings indicate that the participants appear to have an individual MSI threshold that correlates with their susceptibility to motion sickness, however, this threshold fluctuates too strongly across experiments to be suitable for practical application. As a result, the model can successfully estimate motion sickness risk across the test tracks, however, inaccuracies in the predicted MSI trajectories remain.

Background: Disaster medicine has been a formal curricular recommendation in German health professions education since 2006, and comparable recommendations exist internationally. Evidence on implementation is confined almost entirely to human medicine, rests on faculty self-reports or small student samples, and measures delivery rather than retention. Whether curricular exposure is associated with willingness to serve has not been adequately examined in interprofessional samples. Objective: We aimed to characterize disaster medicine education across 7 health professions in Germany, distinguishing delivery from retention, to identify profession-specific gaps and training priorities, and to examine how educational and experiential factors relate to willingness to serve. Methods: We conducted an anonymous nationwide online cross-sectional survey of students and trainees across 7 health professions in Germany between July 9 and August 25, 2026, recruited through institutional distribution lists. The interprofessionally developed instrument comprised 48 items. We assessed delivery and retention of 12 disaster medicine topics (4-point scale), self-rated confidence in 22 clinical and nursing skills (6-point scale), desired content, formats, motivators and barriers, and formal and spontaneous willingness. For all rating scales, higher values denote the more favorable level. We derived a delivery-retention gap and a want-deficit index, examined the dimensional structure of the competence battery, tested for differential item functioning by prior civil protection engagement, and modeled willingness with a cumulative link model. Results: Of 8133 respondents (completion rate 87.5%), 33.1% had never been taught disaster medicine and 25.0% only in passing; 22.1% had comprehensive teaching including practical exercises. Across the 12 topics, the proportion able to retrieve content confidently never exceeded 23.9%; the delivery-retention gap reached 47.3 percentage points. More than half (54.6%) had never taken part in a practical exercise. Competence formed more than 1 dimension: 18 acute-technical items loaded 0.54-0.86 on the first factor, 4 relational and nursing items 0.14-0.28. Prior civil protection engagement was associated with higher confidence on every acute-technical item (Cliff delta 0.26-0.55) and lower confidence on all 4 relational items (-0.22 to -0.09). Willingness was high and homogeneous across groups (78.7% formal, 84.1% spontaneous), whereas competence varied by about 2 scale points. Adjusted, active civil protection engagement (odds ratio 2.49, 95% CI 2.12-2.94) and practical exercise experience (odds ratio 1.78, 95% CI 1.54-2.05) were the strongest predictors; curricular exposure contributed weakly (odds ratio 1.06 per SD, 95% CI 0.99-1.14). Conclusions: Two decades after the curricular recommendation, disaster medicine is largely absent from health professions education in Germany, and what is delivered is not retained. Willingness is nevertheless high and largely decoupled from competence, so qualification and recruitment require separate instruments. Curricula should be prioritized by the coincidence of demand and deficit rather than by coverage, built for retention, and should treat relational and nursing competence as a distinct learning objective.

Introduction: Vaping public education campaigns are a central prevention strategy for young adults (YAs), but message effectiveness varies widely and formative testing typically evaluates one message attribute at a time. This study examined how four perceptual dimensions, including cognitive engagement, social relevance, emotional arousal, and emotional valence, relate to perceived message effectiveness (PME), and whether multiple combinations of these dimensions correspond to similarly high PME. Methods: In a cross-sectional online message-testing study conducted from March to April 2025, 540 U.S. YAs who vape each evaluated 15 messages randomly sampled from a corpus of 229 text-image vaping public education messages, yielding 8,100 message evaluations. Cross-classified multilevel models estimated associations between each perceptual dimension and PME. An Explainable Boosting Machine probed nonlinear associations, and k-means clustering of high-predicted-PME perceptual configurations identified distinct profiles. Analyses were conducted in 2026. Results: Cognitive engagement (b = 0.20, 95% CI [0.18, 0.22]) and social relevance (b = 0.15, 95% CI [0.13, 0.17]) showed the strongest associations with PME, followed by emotional arousal (b = 0.06, 95% CI [0.04, 0.08]); emotional valence showed no linear association (b = 0.00, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.02]). The Explainable Boosting Machine revealed a U-shaped valence pattern, with higher predicted PME at both the negative and positive ends of the scale. Clustering yielded five distinct perceptual profiles with similarly high predicted PME (4.10-4.25). Conclusions: Multiple perceptual configurations correspond to similarly high PME, supporting a configurational approach to formative message testing rather than a single optimal message formula.

The iTHRIV Scholars Mentored Career Development Program initiated an Internal Grant Review (IGR) program in 2020 for current and recently graduated Scholars seeking funding through K and R awards from the NIH. The IGR program is designed to replicate the NIH review process and provide Scholars the opportunity to receive valuable feedback on their applications prior to NIH submission. A key characteristic of the program is the integration of REDCap, enabling automation and year-round offering while improving tracking and reporting efforts and capabilities. Results of the program have been overall positive, both in proposal development and participant feedback. IGR is a sustainable, valuable resource for early-career faculty competing for limited resources in the pursuit to become independently funded clinical translational scientists.