Exploring Business Strategies for Assuring Compliance to Changes in Employment Law

Noncompliance with employment and labor laws can result in compensatory and punitive damages, adversely impacting business profitability. Human Resources (HR) personnel who lack strategies to anticipate and react to changes in employment laws risk penalties for noncompliance, resulting in reduced profitability. Grounded in the top-down model of adaptation and political risk management, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies some HR personnel use to anticipate and react to changes in employment laws to avoid compensatory and punitive damages. The participants included nine HR personnel from nine organizations in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia tri-state area who implemented successful strategies to align with mandated legislation and other existing and new employment laws. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of company documents related to applicable labor laws. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Three themes emerged: (a) strategies to anticipate and react to changes in employment laws; (b) strategies to anticipate and react to changes in “ban the box” legislation; and (c) obtaining feedback on reacting to changes in employment laws. Key recommendations include: (a) providing employment law compliance education and training programs for all supervisors and HR staff; (b) changing the company culture and values, beginning with upper management; and (c) collaborating with the legal team to ensure compliance. The implication for positive social change includes the potential for increased employment among marginalized members of society, including persons with criminal histories, which may reduce crime rates, recidivism, and reliance on government assistance programs

Creation of a pollen database for Mediterranean flowering plants

The genetic database represents a sequence standard matric with which to compare the sequence of plant species that honeybees use for honey production. The ability geo-referencing the honey samples through these DNA investigations will allow us to eventually monitor for introduction of alien species as well as possible cases of species hybridisation.peer-reviewe

An unusual association in a patient with COVID-19-related ARDS and bilateral pleural effusion

We present the case of a 76-year-old female, previously diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis, that was admitted to our Unit of Pulmonology for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure secondary to COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and with bilateral pleural effusions. Despite the therapy the patient’s conditions gradually deteriorated during the hospital stay with progressive hypoxemia and the patient died 36 days after the admissio

Incorporating medical interventions into carrier probability estimation for genetic counseling

BACKGROUND: Mendelian models for predicting who may carry an inherited deleterious mutation of known disease genes based on family history are used in a variety of clinical and research activities. People presenting for genetic counseling are increasingly reporting risk-reducing medical interventions in their family histories because, recently, a slew of prophylactic interventions have become available for certain diseases. For example, oophorectomy reduces risk of breast and ovarian cancers, and is now increasingly being offered to women with family histories of breast and ovarian cancer. Mendelian models should account for medical interventions because interventions modify mutation penetrances and thus affect the carrier probability estimate. METHODS: We extend Mendelian models to account for medical interventions by accounting for post-intervention disease history through an extra factor that can be estimated from published studies of the effects of interventions. We apply our methods to incorporate oophorectomy into the BRCAPRO model, which predicts a woman's risk of carrying mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 based on her family history of breast and ovarian cancer. This new BRCAPRO is available for clinical use. RESULTS: We show that accounting for interventions undergone by family members can seriously affect the mutation carrier probability estimate, especially if the family member has lived many years post-intervention. We show that interventions have more impact on the carrier probability as the benefits of intervention differ more between carriers and non-carriers. CONCLUSION: These findings imply that carrier probability estimates that do not account for medical interventions may be seriously misleading and could affect a clinician's recommendation about offering genetic testing. The BayesMendel software, which allows one to implement any Mendelian carrier probability model, has been extended to allow medical interventions, so future Mendelian models can easily account for interventions

Informed decision making about predictive DNA tests: arguments for more public visibility of personal deliberations about the good life

Since its advent, predictive DNA testing has been perceived as a technology that may have considerable impact on the quality of people’s life. The decision whether or not to use this technology is up to the individual client. However, to enable well considered decision making both the negative as well as the positive freedom of the individual should be supported. In this paper, we argue that current professional and public discourse on predictive DNA-testing is lacking when it comes to supporting positive freedom, because it is usually framed in terms of risk and risk management. We show how this ‘risk discourse’ steers thinking on the good life in a particular way. We go on to argue that empirical research into the actual deliberation and decision making processes of individuals and families may be used to enrich the environment of personal deliberation in three ways: (1) it points at a richer set of values that deliberators can take into account, (2) it acknowledges the shared nature of genes, and (3) it shows how one might frame decisions in a non-binary way. We argue that the public sharing and discussing of stories about personal deliberations offers valuable input for others who face similar choices: it fosters their positive freedom to shape their view of the good life in relation to DNA-diagnostics. We conclude by offering some suggestions as to how to realize such public sharing of personal stories

Molecular pathways leading to loss of skeletal muscle mass in cancer cachexia can findings from animal models be translated to humans?

Background: Cachexia is a multi-factorial, systemic syndrome that especially affects patients with cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, and leads to reduced treatment response, survival and quality of life. The most important clinical feature of cachexia is the excessive wasting of skeletal muscle mass. Currently, an effective treatment is still lacking and the search for therapeutic targets continues. Even though a substantial number of animal studies have contributed to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the loss of skeletal muscle mass, subsequent clinical trials of potential new drugs have not yet yielded any effective treatment for cancer cachexia. Therefore, we questioned to which degree findings from animal studies can be translated to humans in clinical practice and research. Discussion: A substantial amount of animal studies on the molecular mechanisms of muscle wasting in cancer cachexia has been conducted in recent years. This extensive review of the literature showed that most of their observations could not be consistently reproduced in studies on human skeletal muscle samples. However, studies on human material are scarce and limited in patient numbers and homogeneity. Therefore, their results have to be interpreted critically. Summary: More research is needed on human tissue samples to clarify the signaling pathways that lead to skeletal muscle loss, and to confirm pre-selected drug targets from animal models in clinical trials. In addition, improved diagnostic tools and standardized clinical criteria for cancer cachexia are needed to conduct standardized, randomized controlled trials of potential drug candidates in the future