The Integration of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning into the Discipline of Communication Sciences and Disorders

McKinney (2018) has argued that for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to advance within a discipline, the integration of SoTL must be closely examined and opportunities for growth in SoTL must be recognized and discussed. To that end, this paper reflects on the degree to which SoTL is integrated into communication sciences and disorders (CSD) by examining a variety of topics: perspectives and theories historically valued by our discipline, existing supports for SoTL at various levels (i.e., individual teacher-scholars, departments, institutions, and the CSD discipline as a whole), the application of SoTL findings in teaching and learning. Four specific recommendations are made because of this examination and reflection

Does stakeholder pressure influence corporate GHG emissions reporting? Empirical evidence from Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to seek to shed light on the practice of incomplete corporate disclosure of quantitative Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and investigates whether external stakeholder pressure influences the existence, and separately, the completeness of voluntary GHG emissions disclosures by 431 European companies. Design/methodology/approach – A classification of reporting completeness is developed with respect to the scope, type and reporting boundary of GHG emissions based on the guidelines of the GHG Protocol, Global Reporting Initiative and the Carbon Disclosure Project. Logistic regression analysis is applied to examine whether proxies for exposure to climate change concerns from different stakeholder groups influence the existence and/or completeness of quantitative GHG emissions disclosure. Findings – From 2005 to 2009, on average only 15 percent of companies that disclose GHG emissions report them in a manner that the authors consider complete. Results of regression analyses suggest that external stakeholder pressure is a determinant of the existence but not the completeness of emissions disclosure. Findings are consistent with stakeholder theory arguments that companies respond to external stakeholder pressure to report GHG emissions, but also with legitimacy theory claims that firms can use carbon disclosure, in this case the incomplete reporting of emissions, as a symbolic act to address legitimacy exposures. Practical implications – Bringing corporate GHG emissions disclosure in line with recommended guidelines will require either more direct stakeholder pressure or, perhaps, a mandated disclosure regime. In the meantime, users of the data will need to carefully consider the relevance of the reported data and develop the necessary competencies to detect and control for its incompleteness. A more troubling concern is that stakeholders may instead grow to accept less than complete disclosure. Originality/value – The paper represents the first large-scale empirical study into the completeness of companies’ disclosure of quantitative GHG emissions and is the first to analyze these disclosures in the context of stakeholder pressure and its relation to legitimation

Climate change and asset prices: are corporate carbon disclosure and performance priced appropriately?

This paper empirically assesses the value relevance of information on corporate climate change disclosure and performance to asset prices, and discusses whether this information is priced appropriately. Findings indicate that corporate disclosures of quantitative GHG emissions and, to a lesser extent, carbon performance are value relevant. We use hand-collected information on quantitative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 433 European companies and build portfolios based on GHG disclosure and performance. We regress portfolios on Carhart (1997) four factor models extended for industry effects over the years 2005 to 2009. Results show that investors achieved abnormal risk-adjusted returns of up to 13.05% annually by exploiting inefficiently priced positive effects of (complete) GHG emissions disclosure and good corporate climate change performance in terms of GHG efficiency. Results imply that, firstly, information costs involved in carbon disclosure and management do not present a burden on corporate financial resources. Secondly, investors should not neglect carbon disclosure and performance when making investment decisions. Thirdly, during the period analysed financial markets were inefficient in pricing publicly available information on carbon disclosure and performance. Mandatory and standardised information on carbon performance would consequently not only increase market efficiency but result in better allocation of capital within the real economy

Natalizumab induced blood eosinophilia: A retrospective pharmacovigilance cohort study and review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE To describe frequency of natalizumab related eosinophilia and clinical symptoms of eosinophilic disease in our monocentric cohort. METHODS Comparison of clinical characteristics of 115 natalizumab treated and 116 untreated RRMS patients and review of literature. RESULTS 38% of natalizumab treated patients had eosinophilia, which occurred significantly more frequently compared to untreated MS patients (3%, p-value<0.001). In symptomatic patients, mean eosinophil counts were significantly higher than in asymptomatic patients and symptoms developed within one year. DISCUSSION Eosinophilia is a side effect of natalizumab and mostly asymptomatic. However, few patients develop within one year after start of natalizumab an eosinophilic disease as severe side effect

On the Culture of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This article welcomes you to the first issue of TLCSD. In this brief paper, the members of the Editorial Board introduce you to the key concepts that include the value of evidence-based education in our field, the nature of SoTL research, and the corresponding framework for the submission categories that you will find within TLCSD. Particular emphasis is placed on describing the peer-review process, specifically the need for peer-reviews that provide constructive feedback that facilitates improvements in the manuscripts

Prenatal Insecticide Exposures and Birth Weight and Length among an Urban Minority Cohort

We reported previously that insecticide exposures were widespread among minority women in New York City during pregnancy and that levels of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord plasma were inversely associated with birth weight and length. Here we expand analyses to include additional insecticides (the organophosphate diazinon and the carbamate propoxur), a larger sample size (n = 314 mother–newborn pairs), and insecticide measurements in maternal personal air during pregnancy as well as in umbilical cord plasma at delivery. Controlling for potential confounders, we found no association between maternal personal air insecticide levels and birth weight, length, or head circumference. For each log unit increase in cord plasma chlorpyrifos levels, birth weight decreased by 42.6 g [95% confidence interval (CI), −81.8 to −3.8, p = 0.03] and birth length decreased by 0.24 cm (95% CI, −0.47 to −0.01, p = 0.04). Combined measures of (ln)cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon (adjusted for relative potency) were also inversely associated with birth weight and length (p < 0.05). Birth weight averaged 186.3 g less (95% CI, −375.2 to −45.5) among newborns with the highest compared with lowest 26% of exposure levels (p = 0.01). Further, the associations between birth weight and length and cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon were highly significant (p ≤ 0.007) among newborns born before the 2000–2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory actions to phase out residential use of these insecticides. Among newborns born after January 2001, exposure levels were substantially lower, and no association with fetal growth was apparent (p > 0.8). The propoxur metabolite 2-isopropoxyphenol in cord plasma was inversely associated with birth length, a finding of borderline significance (p = 0.05) after controlling for chlorpyrifos and diazinon. Results indicate that prenatal chlorpyrifos exposures have impaired fetal growth among this minority cohort and that diazinon exposures may have contributed to the effects. Findings support recent regulatory action to phase out residential uses of the insecticides

Course of neuropsychological impairment during Natalizumab associated progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.

BACKGROUND Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) - an opportunistic infection of the central nervous system with the John Cunningham virus (JCV) - is a side-effect of Natalizumab (NTZ) treatment for relapsing remitting (RR) multiple sclerosis (MS), potentially leading to a substantial increase of physical and also mental disability. Nevertheless, data of neuropsychological impairment during NTZ-PML disease course is missing. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the neuropsychological disease course of NTZ-PML patients and to compare neuropsychological deficits of NTZ-PML patients with two different non-PML MS cohorts. METHODS Neuropsychological examinations of 28 NTZ-PML patients performed during different phases of the disease (I. at PML-diagnosis, II. during immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome and III. post-IRIS/PML) were retrospectively analyzed and compared to those of NTZ treated RRMS or SPMS patients with and without immunotherapy. RESULTS Compared to controls, NTZ-PML patients performed worse in neuropsychological examinations during all stages of disease mainly affecting visuo-spatial abilitiy and working memory. Furthermore, failure to eliminate the JCV from the central nervous system (CNS) was associated with a progredient decline of cognition, especially working memory. CONCLUSION Working-memory and visuospatial ability are the core neuropsychological deficits of NTZ-PML patients even in long-term-follow-up. Our finding should be implemented in neurorehabilitation strategies

Instructional Internships: Improving the teaching and learning experience for students, interns, and faculty

Students training for clinical careers must acquire skills for teaching clients, their families, and fellow professionals. Guidelines for training programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (Speech-Language Pathology), however, do not currently include standards for pedagogy. The aim of this study was to measure changes in undergraduate students' perceptions of teaching and learning following an Instructional Internship experience, where they served as teaching assistants for foundational knowledge courses in the major. Using a qualitative research design, we coded 31 participants' statements from pre- and post-internship essays and identified major themes and sub-themes.                Our results indicate that by participating in a teaching experience, students develop a deeper appreciation for the relationships between classroom pedagogy, their own learning, and clinical practice. While this study focuses on a pedagogical experience for undergraduate students in a Communication Sciences and Disorders program, the principles and results are generalizable to other professions that train students to provide clinical and educational services. Keywords: teaching assistants, instructional interns, mentoring, doctoral shortage, undergraduate

Prepregnancy obesity is associated with lower psychomotor development scores in boys at age 3 in a low-income, minority birth cohort

Whether maternal obesity and gestational weight gain (GWG) are associated with early-childhood development in low-income, urban, minority populations, and whether effects differ by child sex remain unknown. This study examined the impact of prepregnancy BMI and GWG on early childhood neurodevelopment in the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health Mothers and Newborns study. Maternal prepregnancy weight was obtained by self-report, and GWG was assessed from participant medical charts. At child age 3 years, the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) and Mental Development Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Intelligence were completed. Sex-stratified linear regression models assessed associations between prepregnancy BMI and pregnancy weight gain z-scores with child PDI and MDI scores, adjusting for covariates. Of 382 women, 48.2% were normal weight before pregnancy, 24.1% overweight, 23.0% obese, and 4.7% underweight. At 3 years, mean scores on the PDI and MDI were higher among girls compared to boys (PDI: 102.3 vs. 97.2, P = 0.0002; MDI: 92.8 vs. 88.3, P = 0.0001). In covariate-adjusted models, maternal obesity was markedly associated with lower PDI scores in boys [b = -7.81, 95% CI: (-13.08, -2.55), P = 0.004], but not girls. Maternal BMI was not associated with MDI in girls or boys, and GWG was not associated with PDI or MDI among either sex (all-P &gt; 0.05). We found that prepregnancy obesity was associated with lower PDI scores at 3 years in boys, but not girls. The mechanisms underlying this sex-specific association remain unclear, but due to elevated obesity exposure in urban populations, further investigation is warranted