Legal Aspects of Aerobic Capacity: Objective Evidence of the Ability to Work Part I: Age as a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ)

This two part series examines the legal issues relevant to aerobic capacity as objective evidence of the ability to work. Law relevant to two issues will be reviewed: (1) age as a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) for certain occupations where public safety is at stake (police and wildlife officers), and (2) chronic fatigue syndrome as a medically diagnosed condition that causes disability for work. In case law for both issues, aerobic capacity is offered as objective evidence of the physical ability (disability) to perform work related duties that may be strenuous as in the case of a police officer, or light/sedentary as in the case of a disabled individual. The role of the expert in determining and interpreting the relevance of aerobic capacity to the physiological demands of a job is central to court decisions for both issues

Les Frères jurés (extrait)

Ingolf et Leif les futurs premiers colonisateurs de l’Islande, sont encore de jeunes garçons qui habitent Dalsfjord, dans le sud de la Norvège, la ferme d'Ørn, père d'Ingolf X Arriva à la ferme un mendiant. Un vieil homme voûté, vêtu de hardes crasseuses et de peaux en loques, entra un soir dans la halle et trouva une place auprès du feu tout au bout du banc. Il resta là, à réchauffer ses doigts crochus bleuis de froid, tout en louchant à la ronde de ses yeux délavés et sournois. Assis de la ..

A public at risk: Personal fitness trainers without a standard of care

In 2002, an overweight, sedentary, and middle-aged man suffered a heart attack during his first workout with his “certified” personal trainer. During the workout, the man repeatedly asked to stop because he was experiencing fatigue, heat, thirst, breathlessness, and chest pain. The trainer responded to requests to stop and complaints of fatigue by questioning his client’s masculinity and by continuing the workout. In the lawsuit that followed (Rostai v. Neste Enterprises, 2006), the court did not have the option to consider a statutorily defined standard of care since no licensing requirements existed for those who design and/or lead fitness programs. The court examined the facts and law as presented including the trainer’s conduct, expert testimony, as well as a doctrine known as “primary assumption of risk.” In the end, the court held that under this doctrine, the trainer owed no duty to protect a client from the risks inherent with exercise or to avoid challenging him beyond his current capacity during an initial training session. Simply put, the client assumed the risks associated with exercise, including a risk as serious as a heart attack [1, 2]

Nicolas Pélissier, Journalisme : avis de recherche. La production scientifique française dans son contexte international

Entrons-nous dans une nouvelle ère des études sur le journalisme caractérisée par une réflexivité accrue et une capitalisation des connaissances produites? C’est du moins ce que pourrait suggérer, par son existence même, le dernier livre de Nicolas Pélissier, dérivé de son habilitation à diriger des recherches (hdr). Les conclusions auxquelles parvient l’auteur laissent entrevoir une vérité plus nuancée : outre leur dimension souvent hexagonale, les recherches consacrées au journalisme se car..

Common Genetic Polymorphisms Influence Blood Biomarker Measurements in COPD

Implementing precision medicine for complex diseases such as chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) will require extensive use of biomarkers and an in-depth understanding of how genetic, epigenetic, and environmental variations contribute to phenotypic diversity and disease progression. A meta-analysis from two large cohorts of current and former smokers with and without COPD [SPIROMICS (N = 750); COPDGene (N = 590)] was used to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with measurement of 88 blood proteins (protein quantitative trait loci; pQTLs). PQTLs consistently replicated between the two cohorts. Features of pQTLs were compared to previously reported expression QTLs (eQTLs). Inference of causal relations of pQTL genotypes, biomarker measurements, and four clinical COPD phenotypes (airflow obstruction, emphysema, exacerbation history, and chronic bronchitis) were explored using conditional independence tests. We identified 527 highly significant (p 10% of measured variation in 13 protein biomarkers, with a single SNP (rs7041; p = 10−392) explaining 71%-75% of the measured variation in vitamin D binding protein (gene = GC). Some of these pQTLs [e.g., pQTLs for VDBP, sRAGE (gene = AGER), surfactant protein D (gene = SFTPD), and TNFRSF10C] have been previously associated with COPD phenotypes. Most pQTLs were local (cis), but distant (trans) pQTL SNPs in the ABO blood group locus were the top pQTL SNPs for five proteins. The inclusion of pQTL SNPs improved the clinical predictive value for the established association of sRAGE and emphysema, and the explanation of variance (R2) for emphysema improved from 0.3 to 0.4 when the pQTL SNP was included in the model along with clinical covariates. Causal modeling provided insight into specific pQTL-disease relationships for airflow obstruction and emphysema. In conclusion, given the frequency of highly significant local pQTLs, the large amount of variance potentially explained by pQTL, and the differences observed between pQTLs and eQTLs SNPs, we recommend that protein biomarker-disease association studies take into account the potential effect of common local SNPs and that pQTLs be integrated along with eQTLs to uncover disease mechanisms. Large-scale blood biomarker studies would also benefit from close attention to the ABO blood group