ERISA Confronts ESG

Environmental, Social and Governmental issues, (“ESG”), has been paired with “Human Capital” issues in a sweeping movement that has progressed from university theories to the board rooms of some of the world’s biggest corporations over the last decade. There has also been a rapid growth of investments funds that advertise consideration of ESG and related issues. A practical question is whether employee benefit plans that are subject to strict regulations under the federal law known as ERISA can incorporate ESG considerations in selecting investments for these plans. At present, there is a distinct split of authority due to conflicting rules by the US Department of Labor. This paper will explore some of the key issues regarding ERISA and ESG

Utilizing Credit Reports for Employment Purposes: A Legal Bait and Switch Tactic

In our previous article, Holding Credit Reporting Agencies Accountable: How the Financial Crisis May be Contributing to Improving Accuracy in Credit Reporting we reviewed the legal history of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), its amendments, and the federal case law by circuit. We suggested that the ability of consumers to ensure the accuracy and security of their credit reports might lead to an expansion of the litigation surrounding accurate credit reporting. This article takes the discussion further by exploring the ever-expanding use of credit reports in the employment law arena. We review the state legislation limiting the use of credit reports by employers, the exceptions to these state statutes, and litigation related to those laws to date. This analysis is followed by an examination of the federal legal landscape and broader legal issues related to the use of credit reports, including whether the use of credit reports by employers discriminates against various protected groups. We conclude with a summary of our research, draw conclusions, and point to areas that should be explored in the future, and also speculate, based on a case from the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that we discuss, that this consequence could once again operate to increase the accuracy of credit reporting and hold those agencies more accountable

Utilizing Credit Reports for Employment Purposes: A Legal Bait and Switch Tactic

In our previous article, Holding Credit Reporting Agencies Accountable: How the Financial Crisis May be Contributing to Improving Accuracy in Credit Reporting we reviewed the legal history of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), its amendments, and the federal case law by circuit. We suggested that the ability of consumers to ensure the accuracy and security of their credit reports might lead to an expansion of the litigation surrounding accurate credit reporting. This article takes the discussion further by exploring the ever-expanding use of credit reports in the employment law arena. We review the state legislation limiting the use of credit reports by employers, the exceptions to these state statutes, and litigation related to those laws to date. This analysis is followed by an examination of the federal legal landscape and broader legal issues related to the use of credit reports, including whether the use of credit reports by employers discriminates against various protected groups. We conclude with a summary of our research, draw conclusions, and point to areas that should be explored in the future, and also speculate, based on a case from the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that we discuss, that this consequence could once again operate to increase the accuracy of credit reporting and hold those agencies more accountable

An Empirical Demonstration of the Case-Management Approach to Rehabilitation of Multiply Sensorially Disabled Clients

In one year, five Case Managers provided a wide range of rehabilitation services directly to 133 multiply sensorially disabled clients (the target group) and indirectly to 212 other target clients. The Case Managers encouraged 70 agencies to become interested in, and in some cases to initiate services to, target clients. In addition to providing a considerable amount of direct services, the project staff laid the foundation for continuing improvement in target clients\u27 welfare, by disseminating knowledge other service providers and encouraging them to raise their expectations of rehabilitation outcomes for the target group. Although long-term benefits cannot be assessed in this short period, and although one out of ten clients failed to continue in the project, the overall results justify added implementation of the case-management approach in order to assess further its value in serving the target group

Factors influencing residents’ perceptions, attitudes and behavioral intention toward festivals and special events: a pre-event perspective

This article reports the results of research investigating residents’ perceptions, attitudes and behavioral intention (BI) toward sports festivals and special events (FSE) from a pre-event perspective. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized. Two sets of theoretical frameworks have been employed for this study: Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Social Representation Theory (SRT). A quantitative analysis was utilized. Using structural equation modeling (SEM). The authors have identified a strong association between media influence and FSE image evaluation; FSE image evaluation and residents’ perceptions; residents’ perceptions and attitudes; and residents’ attitudes and behavioral intention. However, the study found that social interactions do not have a significant impact on FSE image evaluation. The practical application of this research is that event planners should use media to promote FSE to local residents. This article concludes with the management implications for FSE planners and organizers. Future studies can build on the findings of the paper to generalize this China model for adaption to other countries

Non-perturbative dynamics of hot non-Abelian gauge fields: beyond leading log approximation

Many aspects of high-temperature gauge theories, such as the electroweak baryon number violation rate, color conductivity, and the hard gluon damping rate, have previously been understood only at leading logarithmic order (that is, neglecting effects suppressed only by an inverse logarithm of the gauge coupling). We discuss how to systematically go beyond leading logarithmic order in the analysis of physical quantities. Specifically, we extend to next-to-leading-log order (NLLO) the simple leading-log effective theory due to Bodeker that describes non-perturbative color physics in hot non-Abelian plasmas. A suitable scaling analysis is used to show that no new operators enter the effective theory at next-to-leading-log order. However, a NLLO calculation of the color conductivity is required, and we report the resulting value. Our NLLO result for the color conductivity can be trivially combined with previous numerical work by G. Moore to yield a NLLO result for the hot electroweak baryon number violation rate.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

The effects of an enhanced simulation programme on medical students' confidence responding to clinical deterioration

BACKGROUND: Clinical deterioration in adult hospital patients is an identified issue in healthcare practice globally. Teaching medical students to recognise and respond to the deteriorating patient is crucial if we are to address the issue in an effective way. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of an enhanced simulation exercise known as RADAR (Recognising Acute Deterioration: Active Response), on medical students’ confidence. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted; the instrument contained three sections. Section 1 focused on students’ perceptions of the learning experience; section 2 investigated confidence. Both sections employed Likert-type scales. A third section invited open responses. Questionnaires were distributed to a cohort of third-year medical students (n = 158) in the North East of Scotland 130 (82 %) were returned for analysis, employing IBM SPSS v18 and ANOVA techniques. RESULTS: Students’ responses pointed to many benefits of the sessions. In the first section, students responded positively to the educational underpinning of the sessions, with all scores above 4.00 on a 5-point scale. There were clear learning outcomes; the sessions were active and engaging for students with an appropriate level of challenge and stress; they helped to integrate theory and practice; and effective feedback on their performance allowed students to reflect and learn from the experience. In section 2, the key finding was that scores for students’ confidence to recognise deterioration increased significantly (p. < .001) as a result of the sessions. Effect sizes (Eta(2)) were high, (0.68–0.75). In the open-ended questions, students pointed to many benefits of the RADAR course, including the opportunity to employ learned procedures in realistic scenarios. CONCLUSIONS: The use of this enhanced form of simulation with simulated patients and the judicious use of moulage is an effective method of increasing realism for medical students. Importantly, it gives them greater confidence in recognising and responding to clinical deterioration in adult patients. We recommend the use of RADAR as a safe and cost-effective approach in the area of clinical deterioration and suggest that there is a need to investigate its use with different patient groups

The Genome Sequence of Caenorhabditis briggsae: A Platform for Comparative Genomics

The soil nematodes Caenorhabditis briggsae and Caenorhabditis elegans diverged from a common ancestor roughly 100 million years ago and yet are almost indistinguishable by eye. They have the same chromosome number and genome sizes, and they occupy the same ecological niche. To explore the basis for this striking conservation of structure and function, we have sequenced the C. briggsae genome to a high-quality draft stage and compared it to the finished C. elegans sequence. We predict approximately 19,500 protein-coding genes in the C. briggsae genome, roughly the same as in C. elegans. Of these, 12,200 have clear C. elegans orthologs, a further 6,500 have one or more clearly detectable C. elegans homologs, and approximately 800 C. briggsae genes have no detectable matches in C. elegans. Almost all of the noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) known are shared between the two species. The two genomes exhibit extensive colinearity, and the rate of divergence appears to be higher in the chromosomal arms than in the centers. Operons, a distinctive feature of C. elegans, are highly conserved in C. briggsae, with the arrangement of genes being preserved in 96% of cases. The difference in size between the C. briggsae (estimated at approximately 104 Mbp) and C. elegans (100.3 Mbp) genomes is almost entirely due to repetitive sequence, which accounts for 22.4% of the C. briggsae genome in contrast to 16.5% of the C. elegans genome. Few, if any, repeat families are shared, suggesting that most were acquired after the two species diverged or are undergoing rapid evolution. Coclustering the C. elegans and C. briggsae proteins reveals 2,169 protein families of two or more members. Most of these are shared between the two species, but some appear to be expanding or contracting, and there seem to be as many as several hundred novel C. briggsae gene families. The C. briggsae draft sequence will greatly improve the annotation of the C. elegans genome. Based on similarity to C. briggsae, we found strong evidence for 1,300 new C. elegans genes. In addition, comparisons of the two genomes will help to understand the evolutionary forces that mold nematode genomes

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin