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Purpose:Complex scientific problems, including those facing the discipline of communication sciences and disorders (CSD), require interdisciplinary teams of scientists who bring diverse perspectives, knowledge, and skills. According to a recent survey, team science is not yet widely practiced by CSD researchers. This viewpoint describes a current interdisciplinary team science project that addresses a challenging problem for CSD practitioners: meeting the needs of young children with speech and language disabilities for screening and intervention using artificial intelligence–augmented technologies. Method:The article draws from the research literature on the science of team science to describe common challenges faced by interdisciplinary teams and recommended practices to resolve the challenges. Throughout, we provide examples from the National Artificial Intelligence Institute for Exceptional Education to illustrate team science challenges and how they can be addressed. Conclusions:Readers are encouraged to embrace interdisciplinary teamwork to advance the science of CSD. We recommend seeking out training in team science, advocating for professional development opportunities, and institutional support for team science to maximize its benefits for the field. 

Speech-language pathologists are familiar with eligibility criteria for school-based special education services under IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In order for children with speech and language disorders to be eligible for services, they need to fit one of the thirteen categories of disabilities. However, these 13 categories do not always align well with current evidence-based diagnoses of neurodiverse conditions. It is because of these challenges that we, as members of the National Artificial Intelligence Institute for Exceptional Education, are particularly grateful to the US Department of Education's Office of Special Education programs for issuing new guidance on the use of DLD to accurately describe the speech and language needs of individual children, no matter what eligibility category they fall into. We are also grateful to members and leaders of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for their strong advocacy to raise the community's awareness of this new guidance. Therefore, our Institute will be another strong advocate for children with DLD so that they can eventually benefit from our Institute's research. We believe that the recognition of DLD as a disability can greatly help these children and their families. 

Abstract Urban neighborhoods with locations of environmental contamination, known as brownfields, impact entire neighborhoods, but corrective environmental remedial action on brownfields is often tracked on an individual property basis, neglecting the larger neighborhood-level impact. This study addresses this impact by examining spatial differences between brownfields with unmitigated environmental concerns (open site) and sites that are considered fully mitigated or closed in urban neighborhoods (closed site) on the US census tract scale in Wayne County, MI. Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s leaking underground storage tank (LUST) database provided brownfield information for Wayne County. Local indicators of spatial association (LISA) produced maps of spatial clustering and outliers. A McNemar’s test demonstrated significant discordances in LISA categories between LUST open and closed sites ( p  < 0.001). Geographically weighted regressions (GWR) evaluated the association between open and closed site spatial density (open-closed) with socioeconomic variables (population density, proportion of White or Black residents, proportion of college educated populations, the percentage of owner-occupied units, vacant units, rented units, and median household value). Final multivariate GWR showed that population density, being Black, college education, vacant units, and renter occupied units were significantly associated ( p  < 0.05) with open-closed, and that those associations varied across Wayne County. Increases in Black population was associated with increased open-closed. Increases in vacant units, renter-occupied units, and college education were associated with decreased open-closed. These results provide input for environmental justice research to identify inequalities and discover the distribution of environmental hazards among urban neighborhoods. 

Water mites are aquatic arachnids that have been used in Europe and Central America as bioindicators of ecological health in various freshwater ecosystems (including bogs). Water mites can be found in high densities in the Laurentian Great Lakes and adjacent habitats. Although they are abundant, water mites are generally not used in the assessment of aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes and are usually assigned to the “other” category in macroinvertebrate assessments. This is despite evidence of their utility as aquatic bioindicators. In the present study we consider water mites as bioindicators of the environmental health of Point Rosa marsh, a threatened marsh found on the US side of transboundary Lake St. Clair. The abundance of water mites in Point Rosa Marsh increased from 2017 to 2019 as lake water levels increased. Although increasing water levels in Lake St. Clair can be considered a negative event due to loss of irreplaceable coastal habitat by erosion with potential economic impacts, this present study indicates that water mite populations in Point Rosa Marsh increased during the same period (2017 to 2019). As a result of our study we: update the biodiversity of water mites from Lake St. Clair with new records compared to the last report from the lake over 45 years ago, first report on water mite assemblages at Point Rosa marsh at the Lake St. Clair Metropark on Lake St. Clair and the first demonstration of water mites used as bioindicators in the habitats of the Laurentian Great Lakes. 

Groundwater plays a significant role in the vitality of the Great Lakes Basin, supplying water for various sectors. Due to the interconnection of groundwater and surface water features in this region, the groundwater quality can be affected, leading to potential economic, political, health, and social issues for the region. Groundwater resources have received less emphasis, perhaps due to an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. The incomplete characterization of groundwater, especially shallow, near-surface waters in urban centers, is an added source of environmental vulnerability for the Great Lakes Basin. This paper provides an improved understanding of urban groundwater to reduce this vulnerability. Towards that end, two approaches for improved characterization of groundwater in southeast Michigan are employed in this project. In the first approach, we construct a regional groundwater model that encompasses four major watersheds to define the large-scale groundwater features. In the second approach, we adopt a local scale and develop a local urban water budget with subsequent groundwater simulation. The results show the groundwater movement in the two different scales, implying the effect of urban settings on the subsurface resources. Both the regional and local scale models can be used to evaluate and mitigate environmental risks in urban centers. 

Groundwater historically has been a critical but understudied, underfunded, and underappreciated natural resource, although recent challenges associated with both groundwater quantity and quality have raised its profile. This is particularly true in the Laurentian Great Lakes (LGL) region, where the rich abundance of surface water results in the perception of an unlimited water supply but limited attention on groundwater resources. As a consequence, groundwater management recommendations in the LGL have been severely constrained by our lack of information. To address this information gap, a virtual summit was held in June 2021 that included invited participants from local, state, and federal government entities, universities, non-governmental organizations, and private firms in the region. Both technical (e.g., hydrologists, geologists, ecologists) and policy experts were included, and participants were assigned to an agricultural, urban, or coastal wetland breakout group in advance, based on their expertise. The overall goals of this groundwater summit were fourfold: (1) inventory the key (grand) challenges facing groundwater in Michigan; (2) identify the knowledge gaps and scientific needs, as well as policy recommendations, associated with these challenges; (3) construct a set of conceptual models that elucidate these challenges; and (4) develop a list of (tractable) next steps that can be taken to address these challenges. Absent this type of information, the sustainability of this critical resource is imperiled. 

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a group of aromatic or chlorinated organic chemicals commonly found in manufactured products that have high vapor pressure, and thus vaporize readily at room temperature. While airshed VOCs are well studied and have provided insights into public health issues, we suggest that belowground VOCs and the related vapor intrusion process could be equally or even more relevant to public health. The persistence, movement, remediation, and human health implications of subsurface VOCs in urban landscapes remain relatively understudied despite evidence of widespread contamination. This review explores the state of the science of subsurface movement and remediation of VOCs through groundwater and soils, the linkages between these poorly understood contaminant exposure pathways and health outcomes based on research in various animal models, and describes the role of these contaminants in human health, focusing on birth outcomes, notably low birth weight and preterm birth. Finally, this review provides recommendations for future research to address knowledge gaps that are essential for not only tackling health disparities and environmental injustice in post-industrial cities, but also protecting and preserving critical freshwater resources.