Dubious Protected Class Distinctions: Eliminating the Role of Replacement Identity in a Discharged Title VII Plaintiff\u27s Case

Title VII prohibits employers from discharging an employee on the basis of the individual\u27s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In cases involving an allegation of discriminatory discharge, the federal circuit courts of appeals have disagreed on whether to consider in the prima facie case the identity of the person the defendant employer has hired to replace the plaintiff. The majority of these courts have held that courts should not require the plaintiff to prove that a person outside of the plaintiff\u27s protected class replaced the plaintiff in order to establish a prima facie case for employment discrimination. This Note argues that, because the underlying policy of Title VII is to protect individuals, not classes of individuals, from employment discrimination, consideration of replacement identity has no valid place in a discriminatory discharge case brought under Title VII

Safety and efficacy outcomes of the Xen45 Gel Stent use for refractory glaucoma: A surgery series from surgeon trainees at a tertiary teaching hospital

Background: To study the effect of an ab interno gelatin stent (XEN45 Gel Stent, Allergan Inc., Irvine, California, USA) on intraocular pressure (IOP) as placed by glaucoma fellowship trainees in eyes with refractory glaucoma. Methods: A prospective noncomparative study at a tertiary training center on 28 unique eyes undergoing ab interno gelatin stent implantation by glaucoma fellowship trainees. Data was collected at baseline and postoperatively at day 1, week 1, and months 1, 3, 5, and 12. Primary outcome was mean IOP change. Secondary outcomes included change in number of glaucoma medication classes and visual acuity. Safety outcomes included needling rates. Surgical success was defined by achieving ≥20% reduction in IOP with the same or fewer classes of antiglaucoma medications from baseline without the need for secondary surgical intervention and/or stent removal. Results: At baseline, 28.6% (8/28) of the subjects had prior failed incisional glaucoma surgery in a study population that was 54% African-American, with 78% with severe glaucoma (average mean deviation of - 14.58 dB). Thirteen subjects terminated their clinic visits before their 12-month postoperative visit, leaving 15 subjects for end point analysis. Average IOP went from 21.6 mmHg (range 12.0-31.0, SD 6.6) at baseline to 12.5 mmHg (range 7.0-19.0, SD 3.6), a 42.1% reduction ( Conclusions: Compared to the reported literature with experienced ocular surgeons, ab interno gel stent placements by glaucoma fellowship trainees have similar mean IOP, topical medication reduction, surgical success, and needling rates at 12-month follow-up

Young Children’s Decisions to Include Peers with Physical Disabilities in Play

The authors examined factors related to preschool children’s reasoning about including a hypothetical peer with a physical disability in different play activities. They hypothesized that children’s inclusion decisions would be influenced by features of the physical environment, attention to issues of fairness and equity, and individual child characteristics. Participants comprised 72 children enrolled in inclusive preschool classrooms. Children’s ideas about inclusion and their inclusion decisions were gathered in response to vignettes reflecting experiences that children are likely to encounter in preschool. The authors found that children were significantly more likely to say that they would include a child with a physical disability in an activity requiring few motor skills. Children’s inclusion decisions were also significantly associated with their developing theory-of-mind skills and with prompts that encouraged them to consider issues of fairness and equity when making a decision. These results suggest that adaptations of planned activities that promote participation by reducing motor demands for all children, along with attention to issues of fairness and equity of opportunity, may be effective classroomwide interventions to support inclusion of children with disabilities in play activities with peers

Resilience among Single Adult Female Refugees in Hamilton, Ontario

Single adult females remain among the most vulnerable of all refugee populations. However, there is a lack of research on supporting and empowering these women. There is a new interest in identifying factors that reinforce resilience and, ultimately, adjustment to the host country. In line with the current work on resilience, semi-structured, in-depth, personal interviews with single refugee women were conducted in the city of Hamilton, Ontario. A grounded theory approach revealed participants’ perspectives on the support received from religious or cultural communities, non-governmental organizations, and the government in terms of their perceived contribution to adaptation. Both informal and formal support, along with individual characteristics, were found to be crucial for reinforcing resilience among these refugees, reflective of a collective resilience model that moves beyond individual and community resilience. Future research should aim to investigate the perspectives of those who did not receive social support from shelters as well as to assess the efficacy of current refugee support services.Les femmes adultes célibataires demeurent parmi les plus vulnérables des groupes de réfugiés. On remarque cependant un manque de recherches sur le soutien et l’autonomisation de ces femmes. Il y a par ailleurs un nouvel intérêt pour l’identification des facteurs augmentant la résilience et par conséquent la capacité d’ajustement au pays d’accueil. En lien avec ces travaux sur la résilience, des entrevues individuelles approfondies et semi-structurées avec des femmes réfugiées célibataires ont été eff ectuées à Hamilton en Ontario. L’approche basée sur la théorie a mis en lumière leur point de vue sur le soutien qu’elles reçoivent des communautés culturelles et religieuses et des organisations gouvernementales et non-gouvernementales, plus particulièrement au niveau de leur adaptation. Le soutien formel et informel, en plus des caractéristiques personnelles, s’avèrent être des facteurs importants pour l’amélioration de leur résilience, illustrant un modèle de résilience qui va au-delà de la résilience individuelle et des communautés. Les recherches à venir devraient examiner la perception des réfugiés qui n’ont pas reçu de soutien social et évaluer l’effi cacité des services actuels de soutien aux réfugiés

Occupational Therapists\u27 Perceptions of Sensory Processing Evaluation Methods

Background: This study aimed to obtain occupational therapists’ (OTs) experiences and perspectives on current evaluation tools who work with clients with sensory processing challenges in their clinical settings. Method: This research was a mixed-method study. Data was collected from surveys (n = 11) which had a mix of nominal, interval, close-ended, and open-ended questions. Following survey completion, participants were given the option to complete a semi-structured interview (n = 2) consisting of open-ended questions to clarify survey responses and gather additional information about their experiences. Results: The results indicated a high number of various barriers and limitations found in both the current sensory-based evaluation and assessment tools. In both qualitative and quantitative analysis, the evaluation setting had three major subthemes: time factor (100%), client factor (72.7%), and environmental factor (27.3%). Participants also revealed a lack of neurodiversity (81.8%), strength-based (27.3%), and normative criteria-based (72.7%) assessment tools in current clinical settings. High utilization of collaboration and support were also noted. Interprofessional team (54.6%) and mentor/supervisor (63.6%) would always connect and support their evaluation process, whereas caregivers (72.7%) would occasionally collaborate and be included (45.5%) within the evaluation process. Conclusion: Evaluating and assessing clients with sensory processing challenges is a complex process and does not fit inside a structured rigid medical model. OTs need high support to better assist their clients and caregivers.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonessummer2023/1029/thumbnail.jp

ModuleDigger: an itemset mining framework for the detection of cis-regulatory modules

Background: The detection of cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) that mediate transcriptional responses in eukaryotes remains a key challenge in the postgenomic era. A CRM is characterized by a set of co-occurring transcription factor binding sites (TFBS). In silico methods have been developed to search for CRMs by determining the combination of TFBS that are statistically overrepresented in a certain geneset. Most of these methods solve this combinatorial problem by relying on computational intensive optimization methods. As a result their usage is limited to finding CRMs in small datasets (containing a few genes only) and using binding sites for a restricted number of transcription factors (TFs) out of which the optimal module will be selected. Results: We present an itemset mining based strategy for computationally detecting cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) in a set of genes. We tested our method by applying it on a large benchmark data set, derived from a ChIP-Chip analysis and compared its performance with other well known cis-regulatory module detection tools. Conclusion: We show that by exploiting the computational efficiency of an itemset mining approach and combining it with a well-designed statistical scoring scheme, we were able to prioritize the biologically valid CRMs in a large set of coregulated genes using binding sites for a large number of potential TFs as input

Atomic structures and deletion mutant reveal different capsid-binding patterns and functional significance of tegument protein pp150 in murine and human cytomegaloviruses with implications for therapeutic development.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection causes birth defects and life-threatening complications in immunosuppressed patients. Lack of vaccine and need for more effective drugs have driven widespread ongoing therapeutic development efforts against human CMV (HCMV), mostly using murine CMV (MCMV) as the model system for preclinical animal tests. The recent publication (Yu et al., 2017, DOI: 10.1126/science.aam6892) of an atomic model for HCMV capsid with associated tegument protein pp150 has infused impetus for rational design of novel vaccines and drugs, but the absence of high-resolution structural data on MCMV remains a significant knowledge gap in such development efforts. Here, by cryoEM with sub-particle reconstruction method, we have obtained the first atomic structure of MCMV capsid with associated pp150. Surprisingly, the capsid-binding patterns of pp150 differ between HCMV and MCMV despite their highly similar capsid structures. In MCMV, pp150 is absent on triplex Tc and exists as a "Λ"-shaped dimer on other triplexes, leading to only 260 groups of two pp150 subunits per capsid in contrast to 320 groups of three pp150 subunits each in a "Δ"-shaped fortifying configuration. Many more amino acids contribute to pp150-pp150 interactions in MCMV than in HCMV, making MCMV pp150 dimer inflexible thus incompatible to instigate triplex Tc-binding as observed in HCMV. While pp150 is essential in HCMV, our pp150-deletion mutant of MCMV remained viable though with attenuated infectivity and exhibiting defects in retaining viral genome. These results thus invalidate targeting pp150, but lend support to targeting capsid proteins, when using MCMV as a model for HCMV pathogenesis and therapeutic studies

Method for the detection and quantification of analytes using three-dimensional paper-based devices

Described herein are three-dimensional (3-D) paper fluidic devices. The entire 3-D device is fabricated on a support layer formed from a single sheet of material and assembled by folding the support layer. The folded structure may be enclosed in an impermeable cover or package. Chemically sensitive particles may be disposed in the support layer for use in detecting analytes.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste