An Administrative Battle of the Forms: The EEOC\u27s Intake Questionnaire and Charge of Discrimination

This Note argues that the EEOC\u27s interpretation of Title VII as reflected in its regulations is consistent with underlying statutory intent and strikes an appropriate balance between the needs of employers and employees. Therefore, Congress should amend section 706(b) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide that a charge must be verified prior to the commencement of an EEOC investigation but not necessarily within the statutory filing period. Part I examines the legislative history of Title VII and its integrated procedures for obtaining administrative and judicial relief. Part II critiques the various ways in which federal courts have attempted to resolve the conflict between the explicit oath requirement contained in the statute and the EEOC\u27s implementing regulations which permit subsequent verification of a lesser submission. Part III argues that Congress should amend the statute to coincide with the courts\u27 movement toward a more flexible standard. This Note concludes that the purposes of Title VII would best be served by amending the statute to permit subsequent verification of timely filed intake questionnaires

Pregnancy and delivery while receiving vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of major depression: a case report

BACKGROUND: Depression during pregnancy can have significant health consequences for the mother and her infant. Antidepressant medications, which pass through the placenta, may increase the risk of low birth weight and preterm delivery. The use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy may induce serotonergic symptoms in the infant after delivery. Antidepressant medications in breast milk may also be passed to an infant. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy is an effective non-pharmacologic treatment for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), but little information exists regarding the use of VNS therapy during pregnancy. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient began receiving VNS therapy for TRD in March 1999. The therapy was effective, producing substantial reductions in depressive symptoms and improvement of function. In 2002, the patient reported that she was pregnant. She continued receiving VNS therapy throughout her pregnancy, labor, and delivery, which enabled the sustained remission of her depression. The pregnancy was uneventful; a healthy daughter was delivered at full term. CONCLUSION: In this case, VNS therapy provided effective treatment for TRD during pregnancy and delivery. VNS was safe for the patient and her child

Internet Transparency of Local Men’s Health Clinics in Nebraska

An overview of Men’s Health Clinics offering Testosterone Therapy in a Midwest State. Introduction/ Background – Since 2001, there has been a 300% increase in the use of Testosterone therapy. However, there remains limited published data on the demographics of facilities and providers that advertise this service. This study aims to look at such demographics of advertised Men’s health clinics in Nebraska. Methods/ Materials – An internet search was conducted with the phrases “Nebraska Male health clinics, Nebraska Low T/testosterone, Nebraska Hormone Replacement Therapy”. All clinics that were found offering Testosterone therapy with Men’s health in their mission statement were included. Data was gathered using 6 questions, with answers obtained from the public website or by calling the office. Results – 19 different facilities were found that self-identified as Men’s Health clinics. 5/19 facilities were nationally corporate owned, 13/19 were individually owned, and 1 was an academic university. All offered Testosterone Therapy. Of the 19 facilities, 10/19 branded themselves primarily as Men’s Health Clinics. 6/10 out of those offered testosterone therapy, Plasma infusion, and Penile Shockwave Therapy. Those that offered services other than Men’s health were marketed as Medical Spas and Aesthetic centers, offering hormone replacement therapy, aesthetics, and anti-aging treatments. 10/19 Clinics had no MD listed and visits would be with a mid-level provider (NP or PA). Only 1/19 provided prices online, others required consultation before prices would be given. Of the 19 facilities, only 6 accept insurance and the rest are cash-pay clinics only. Conclusions – Of the Nebraska clinics that self-identify as men’s health clinics, many are individually owned clinics with a focus on hormone replacement or aesthetics. Of those clinics, many were run entirely by mid-levels or with a supervising MD overseeing mid-levels. Less than 1/3rd of facilities accept insurance and there is a lack of price transparency

Observations of NO in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere during ECOMA 2010

In December 2010 the last campaign of the German-Norwegian sounding rocket project ECOMA (Existence and Charge state Of Meteoric smoke particles in the middle Atmosphere) was conducted from Andøya Rocket Range in northern Norway (69° N, 16° E) in connection with the Geminid meteor shower. The main instrument on board the rocket payloads was the ECOMA detector for studying meteoric smoke particles (MSPs) by active photoionization and subsequent detection of the produced charges (particles and photoelectrons). In addition to photoionizing MSPs, the energy of the emitted photons from the ECOMA flash-lamp is high enough to also photoionize nitric oxide (NO). Thus, around the peak of the NO layer, at and above the main MSP layer, photoelectrons produced by the photoionization of NO are expected to contribute to, or even dominate above the main MSP-layer, the total measured photoelectron current. Among the other instruments on board was a set of two photometers to study the O2 (b1Σg+−X3Σg) Atmospheric band and NO2 continuum nightglow emissions. In the absence of auroral emissions, these two nightglow features can be used together to infer NO number densities. This will provide a way to quantify the contribution of NO photoelectrons to the photoelectron current measured by the ECOMA instrument and, above the MSP layer, a simultaneous measurement of NO with two different and independent techniques. This work is still on-going due to the uncertainties, especially in the effort to quantitatively infer NO densities from the ECOMA photoelectron current, and the lack of simultaneous measurements of temperature and density for the photometric study. In this paper we describe these two techniques to infer NO densities and discuss the uncertainties. The peak NO number density inferred from the two photometers on ascent was 3.9 × 108 cm−3 at an altitude of about 99 km, while the concentration inferred from the ECOMA photoelectron measurement at this altitude was a factor of 5 smaller

The Use of Organizational Behavior Management in Training Applied Behavior Analysis Methods in Residential Settings: A Review

Applied behavior analysis has a long history of success in showing therapeutic gains within human service settings. The need to train all types of staff in behavior analytic methods is crucial to the continuation of this tradition. Research has shown organizational behavior management (OBM) to be effective in teaching others to implement behavior analytic programs. However, OBM appears to be largely absent from human service settings. The present research paper reviews the literature in this area, examines trends, and makes suggestions for future research

The Role of the National Laboratory in Improving Secondary Science Education

While the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers in our education system is obvious, their role in our economic and national security system is less so. Our nation relies upon innovation and creativity applied in a way that generates new technologies for industry, health care, and the protection of our national assets and citizens. Often, it is our science teachers who generate the excitement that leads students to pursue science careers. While academia provides these teachers with the tools to educate, the rigors of a science and technology curriculum, coupled with the requisite teaching courses, often limit teacher exposure to an authentic research environment. As the single largest funding agency for the physical sciences, the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science plays an important role in filling this void. For STEM teachers, the DOE Academies Creating Teacher Scientists program (ACTS) bridges the worlds of research and education. The ACTS program at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), one of several across the country, exemplifies the value of this program for participating teachers. Outcomes of the work at BNL as evidenced by the balance of this report, include the following: (1) Teachers have developed long-term relationships with the Laboratory through participation in ongoing research, and this experience has both built enthusiasm for and enriched the content knowledge of the participants. (2) Teachers have modified the way they teach and are more likely to engage students in authentic research and include more inquiry-based activities. (3) Teachers have reported their students are more interested in becoming involved in science through classes, extra-curricular clubs, and community involvement. (4) Teachers have established leadership roles within their peer groups, both in their own districts and in the broader teaching community. National laboratories are making an important contribution to the science education system by engaging teachers in authentic research activities, maintaining durable relationships with the teachers, sharing the tools and intellectual capabilities of a federal research agency, and taking the added step of engaging their students as well. These experiences, set in a scientifically rich environment, distinguish the DOE ACTS program

Coordinating Housing and Social Services: The New Imperative

Historically, liberals and conservatives have disagreed over the causes of poverty. Recently, however, their attitudes toward existing public programs to assist the poor have converged. Liberals and conservatives alike have criticized these programs for failing to move people out of poverty. More specifically, public housing and other programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) have been faulted for having built-in incentives that discourage recipients from increasing their incomes. The lack of coordination among the various social assistance programs has also been criticized. A person may receive job training, for example, but have to drop out because child care is unavailable. Overall, the current array of housing and social services has not effectively assisted poor families in attaining self-sufficiency. An important goal of housing and social programs should be to help individuals and families achieve self-sufficiency. This notion is reflected in recent housing and social service legislation, including the Family Support Act of 1988 and the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990. These acts seek to restructure housing and social services to provide incentives and support for self-sufficiency, rather than simply maintaining recipients at a minimum standard of living

Large mesospheric ice particles at exceptionally high altitudes

We here report on the characteristics of exceptionally high Noctilucent clouds (NLC) that were detected with rocket photometers during the ECOMA/MASS campaign at Andøya, Norway 2007. The results from three separate flights are shown and discussed in connection to lidar measurements. Both the lidar measurements and the large difference between various rocket passages through the NLC show that the cloud layer was inhomogeneous on large scales. Two passages showed a particularly high, bright and vertically extended cloud, reaching to approximately 88 km. Long time series of lidar measurements show that NLC this high are very rare, only one NLC measurement out of thousand reaches above 87 km. The NLC is found to consist of three distinct layers. All three were bright enough to allow for particle size retrieval by phase function analysis, even though the lowest layer proved too horizontally inhomogeneous to obtain a trustworthy result. Large particles, corresponding to an effective radius of 50 nm, were observed both in the middle and top of the NLC. The present cloud does not comply with the conventional picture that NLC ice particles nucleate near the temperature minimum and grow to larger sizes as they sediment to lower altitudes. Strong up-welling, likely caused by gravity wave activity, is required to explain its characteristics