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‘Critical’ career milestones for faculty (e.g., tenure, securing grant funding) relate to career advancement, job satisfaction, service/leadership, scholarship/research, clinical or teaching activities, professionalism, compensation, and work-life balance. However, barriers and challenges to these milestones encountered by junior faculty have been inadequately studied, particularly those affecting underrepresented minorities in science (URM-S). Additionally, little is known about how barriers and challenges to career milestones have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic for URM-S and non-URM faculty mentees in science. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 31 faculty mentees from four academic institutions (located in New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, and Hawaii), including 22 URM-S (women or racial/ethnic). Respondents were given examples of ‘critical’ career milestones and were asked to identify and discuss barriers and challenges that they have encountered or expect to encounter while working toward achieving these milestones. We performed thematic descriptive analysis using NVivo software in an iterative, team-based process. Our preliminary analysis identified five key themes that illustrate barriers and challenges encountered: Job and career development, Discrimination and a lack of workplace diversity; Lack of interpersonal relationships and inadequate social support at the workplace; Personal and family matters; and Unique COVID-19-related issues. COVID-19 barriers and challenges were related to online curriculum creation and administration, interpersonal relationship development, inadequate training/service/conference opportunities, and disruptions in childcare and schooling. Although COVID-19 helped create new barriers and challenges for junior faculty mentees, traditional barriers and challenges for ‘critical’ career milestones continue to be reported among our respondents. URM-S respondents also identified discrimination and diversity-related barriers and challenges. Subsequent interviews will focus on 12-month and 24-month follow-ups and provide additional insight into the unique challenges and barriers to ‘critical’ career milestones that URM and non-URM faculty in science have encountered during the unique historical context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organizational culture is the shared, often unspoken, basic values, beliefs, and assumptions. Underlying culture influences organizational climate, the observable policies, practices, and procedures that faculty experience. Yet little is known about mentoring culture and climate in higher education. The purpose of this study was to a) conduct a psychometric evaluation of the 4-item Organizational Culture Mentoring Values (OCuM-V) scale and b) determine if organizational culture, operationalized as values related to mentoring, is associated with organizational mentoring climate (OMC) and involvement with mentoring. 298 [55 under-represented minority (URM)] faculty from University of New Mexico and Arizona State University completed a cross-sectional survey, including the OCuM-V scale and the 15-item OMC Availability (OMCA) scale. Items for both scales were rated No (1), Don’t know (0), or Yes (1). Faculty reported if they were being mentored or providing mentoring. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Cronbach’s alpha were used for scale evaluation. Spearman correlation and logistic regression were used to assess OCuM-V association with climate and mentoring involvement, respectively. Overall, 24% of faculty were being mentored (27% for URM), and 43% were mentoring (38% for URM). OCuM-V items loaded on a single factor in EFA (Cronbach’s alpha=0.84 for all; 0.88 for URM). OCuM-V was positively correlated with OMCA (including institutional expectations, mentor-mentee relationships, and resources subscales) for both all and URM faculty (r>0.4 p

Many mentor training interventions in higher education focus on improving interactions between mentors and mentees. Existing measures of interactions are based on reported perceptions of the mentor or mentee. However, there are currently no objective assessments of the mentor’s behavioral skill. The purpose of this study was to develop a Mentor Behavioral Interaction (MBI) Rubric as a measure of a mentor’s behavioral skill during single-episode interactions with a mentee. Subsequently, the content validity was assessed. The six items (Part 1), evaluated by five mentoring experts as quantifiable behaviors in any mentor-mentee interaction, were based on the Mentoring Competency Assessment (Fleming et al., 2013). The experts developed scoring criteria (highest, middle, and lowest performance) for each item, and created another eleven items (Part 2) to characterize the content (yes/no) of the interaction. Seven content experts rated the items and scoring criteria using a scale ranging from very (4) to not relevant (1) (Lynn, 1986). Five of the six Part 1 items and scoring criteria, and nine of the eleven Part 2 items had item content validity indices (I-CVI) ≥ 0.86. The Part 1 “motivates” item and scoring, and the Part 2 “personal/professional preferences” item were revised based on expert recommendations. One Part 2 item was deleted. Average scale content validity indices (S-CVI/Ave) were ≥ 0.90. The MBI Rubric is the first measure developed to assess single episodes of videoed mentor-mentee interactions. The Rubric may be used with other measures to assess the effectiveness of mentor training. Limitations include: evaluation of the mentor’s behavior without accounting for the mentee’s behavior; inability to infer cognitive processes; and focus on the quality of one interaction, rather than the effectiveness of the relationship over time. Future work will assess inter-rater reliability, sensitivity to change, and construct validity for the Rubric.

Outstanding progress has been achieved in developing therapeutic options for reasonably alleviating symptoms and prolonging the lifespan of patients suffering from myocardial infarction (MI). Current treatments, however, only partially address the functional recovery of post-infarcted myocardium, which is in fact the major goal for effective primary care. In this context, we largely investigated novel cell and TE tissue engineering therapeutic approaches for cardiac repair, particularly using multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) and natural extracellular matrices, from pre-clinical studies to clinical application. A further step in this field is offered by MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (EV), which are naturally released nanosized lipid bilayer-delimited particles with a key role in cell-to-cell communication. Herein, in this review, we further describe and discuss the rationale, outcomes and challenges of our evidence-based therapy approaches using Wharton's jelly MSC and derived EV in post-MI management.

Elementy krajobrazu powinny podlegać ochronie a ich liczba zwiększać się aby podnieść wartość świadczeń ekosystemowych dostarczanych przez grunty rolne. Kwalifikowalność elementów krajobrazu do otrzymywania płatności jest istotne dla wsparcia finansowego rolników, którzy będą dostarczać świadczeń ekosystemowych w ramach WPR 2021-2027. Kluczową kwestią jest uznanie agroleśnictwa w prawodawstwie, także w kontekście krajobrazu aby zwiększyć świadomość społeczeństwa że konieczne jest przejście z konwencjonalnych sposobów użytkowania gruntu do bardziej zrównoważonych. - Landscape features should be preserved and their extent enlarged to increase the delivery of ecosystem services in both croplands and arable lands. Accountability of landscape features is essential to pay farmers for ecosystem services delivery that is aimed at next CAP 2021-2027. It is essential to recognize agroforestry as such when describing landscape features to increase awareness about the needed transition from conventional to more sustainable land use systems.

Soils play an important role in climate change mitigation by storing carbon and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The carbon associated to the different soil fractions can vary over time due to several factors including biological system characteristics, climatic conditions or land use. The aim of this study was to evaluate the amount of carbon uses traditionally encountered in the semi-arid areas of the South of Portugal (natural forest vegetation, agroforestry and agricultural). The experiment was carried out in three plots of the Perímetro Florestal of Contenda located in the Baixo Alentejo province, South of Portugal. The three selected plots were: i) a plot with natural forest vegetation, dominated by uneven aged Quercus rotundifolia L. trees established through natural regeneration, ii) a plot with an agroforestry land use (montado), in which uneven aged Quercus rotundifolia L. trees were established and are currently at a low density (66 trees ha-1) and combined with an extensive grazing with sheep, iii) a plot with an agricultural land use in which during the last six years the soil was tilled to sow a mixture of grasses (triticale, oat and wheat) and legumes (clover) for livestock feeding. In these plots soil samples were collected at a soil depth of 25 cm in March 2017. In the plots with natural forest vegetation the soil samples were collected under the trees and in the agroforestry plots the soil samples were collected under the trees and in those areas not affected by the trees. In the laboratory, soil samples were physically fractio- Elemental Analyzer. The percentage of carbon was used to calculate the carbon storage per hectare (Mg C ha-1) in the soil fractions. The obtained results showed that the land use modified the carbon storage in the soil fractions, mainly due to the different inputs of organic matter to the soil and the management activities associated with each land use such as the soil tillage or the livestock grazing. In this study, the trees established in the plots increased the carbon storage per hectare in the macroaggregates and in microaggregates probably due to the high inputs of organic matter to the soil coming from the tree leaves and roots. Therefore, in semi-arid areas such as those in this study it could be recommended the implementation of agroforestry systems such as the montado as a land use to mitigate the effect of the climate change, allowing agricultural production.

Praktyki drzewno-orne mogą przyczynić się do poprawy usług ekosystemowych na gruntach ornych jednocześnie generując miejsca pracy. Praktyki drzewno-orne zwiększają produktywność oraz poprawiają rezultaty społeczne i środowiskowe w przeliczeniu na jednostkę powierzchni gruntów. Ograniczenia techniczne, ekonomiczne, edukacyjne oraz prawne związane z praktykami drzewno-ornymi należy pokonywać poprzez odpowiednie planowanie i wprowadzanie strategii edukacyjnych i politycznych. - Silvoarable practices can contribute to increase the ecosystem services delivery from arable lands while generating employment. Silvoarable practices enhance productivity, environment and social outputs per unit of land. Silvoarable practices technical, economic, educational and policy challenges should be overcome through the adequate design and implementation of educational and policy programs.

Melissa oficinalis L. (melisa lekarska) jest uprawiana w celu pozyskania kwasu rozmarynowego, używanego w przemyśle farmaceutycznym. Dobrze sprawdza się w warunkach częściowego zacienienia. Drzewa wiśni dostarczają drewna wysokiej jakości, co pozwala uzyskać znaczący zwrot z inwestycji. W porównaniu do innych drzew, nie zacieniają silnie upraw.