The Courage to SoTL

Using Parker Palmer’s The Courage to Teach, and in particular the notion of the undivided life, to guide reflections through the process of collaborative autoethnography, we reflect on our lived experiences with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The central question being: How does Palmer’s idea of the undivided life enable SoTL scholars to explore notions of identity and integrity that are intertwined with our academic practice? Ultimately, we found that Palmer’s insights provoked us to think deeply about our identities, and while perhaps we did not always see ourselves on the paths he illuminates, his work, and our collaborative ethnographic process, helped us to illuminate our own paths. More specifically, we share five themes arising from our collaborative autoethnography related to the importance of context and positionality, defining a SoTL scholar, the power to diminish, the importance of relationships and community, and collaborative autoethnography as method and process. Our stories highlight the need for us to see our community as complex, messy, and deeply human, and we remind readers of the need to think about the ethics of all methods and the power in our everyday practice to include or exclude

Neuroscience Informed Prolonged Exposure Practice: Increasing Efficiency and Efficacy Through Mechanisms

Prolonged exposure (PE) is an empirically supported efficacious treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this focused review, we briefly review the neurobiological networks in PTSD relevant to PE, discuss the theoretical basis of PE, review the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of PE and identify the enhancements that can be applied to increase treatment response and retention. Based on the reviewed studies, it is clear that PTSD results in disrupted network of interconnected regions, and PE has been shown to increase the connectivity within and between these regions. Successful extinction recall in PE is related to increased functional coherence between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), amygdala and the hippocampus. Increased connectivity within the dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) following PE is associated with more effective downregulation of emotional responses in stressful situations. Pre-existing neural connectivity also in some cases predicts response to exposure treatment. We consider various enhancements that have been used with PE, including serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), D-cycloserine (DCS), allopregnanolone (ALLO) and propranolol, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), oxytocin and MDMA. Given that neural connectivity appears to be crucial in mechanisms of action of PE, rTMS is a logical target for further research as an enhancement of PE. Additionally, exploring the effectiveness and mechanisms of action of oxytocin and MDMA in conjunction with PE may lead to improvement in treatment engagement and retention

Thiyl-Radical Reactions in Carbohydrate Chemistry: From Thiosugars to Glycoconjugate Synthesis

Thiyl-radical mediated reactions have been extensively investigated for the preparation of carbohydrate derivatives. Due to the mild reaction conditions, high yields and tolerance to a wide range of functional groups, these reactions are ideally suited to the preparation of bioconjugates including glycopeptides and glycoproteins. This microreview covers the various synthetic strategies that have been employed for the preparation of thiosugars, glycoconjugates and glycodendrimers, employing the carbohydrate unit as both the carrier of the thiyl radical and also as the acceptor. Both the inter- and intramolecular thiol-ene and -yne processes are presented and discussed. Future perspective and directions for this methodology in glycoscience are also examined

Rasch analysis of the independent mobility questionnaire

Purpose The Independent Mobility Questionnaire (IMQ) assesses participants’ perceived ability for independent mobility. However, it has not been validated in a severely visually impaired population. The aim of this study was to explore the IMQ’s psychometric properties in participants with severe visual impairment. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of 40 participants with retinitis pigmentosa (better eye visual acuity 1.4); however, given our sample size restrictions, these items were not removed from the analysis. The IMQ had good construct validity (moderate correlation with the Impact of Vision Impairment Mobility subscale, r = 0.595, p < 0.05) but did not demonstrate criterion validity. Conclusions The psychometric properties of the IMQ were promising. Our findings are useful for researchers evaluating the effectiveness of novel treatment technologies on mobility in a severely visually impaired population from the participant’s perspective. However, further validation studies in larger samples are required to confirm our results

Developing a very low vision orientation and mobility test battery (O&M-VLV)

Purpose This study aimed to determine the feasibility of an assessment of vision-related orientation and mobility (O&amp;M) tasks in persons with severe vision loss. These tasks may be used for future low vision rehabilitation clinical assessments or as outcome measures in vision restoration trials. Methods Forty legally blind persons (mean visual acuity logMAR 2.3, or hand movements) with advanced retinitis pigmentosa participated in the Orientation &amp; Mobility—Very Low Vision (O&amp;M-VLV) subtests from the Low Vision Assessment of Daily Activities (LoVADA) protocol. Four categories of tasks were evaluated: route travel in three indoor hospital environments, a room orientation task (the “cafe”), a visual exploration task (the “gallery”), and a modified version of the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, which assesses re-orientation and route travel. Spatial cognition was assessed using the Stuart Tactile Maps test. Visual acuity and visual fields were measured. Results A generalized linear regression model showed that a number of measures in the O&amp;M-VLV tasks were related to residual visual function. The percentage of preferred walking speed without an aid on three travel routes was associated with visual field (p < 0.01 for all routes) whereas the number of contacts with obstacles during route travel was associated with acuity (p = 0.001). TUG-LV task time was associated with acuity (p = 0.003), as was the cafe time and distance traveled (p = 0.006 and p < 0.001, respectively). The gallery score was the only measure that was significantly associated with both residual acuity and fields (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). Conclusions The O&amp;M-VLV was designed to capture key elements of O&amp;M performance in persons with severe vision loss, which is a population not often studied previously. Performance on these tasks was associated with both binocular visual acuity and visual field. This new protocol includes assessments of orientation, which may be of benefit in vision restoration clinical trials