Survey of Federal Whistleblower and Anti-Retaliation Laws

This report provides an overview of federal whistleblower and anti-retaliation laws. In general, these laws protect employees who report misconduct by their employers or who engage in various protected activities, such as participating in an investigation or filing a complaint. In recent years, Congress has expanded employee protections for a variety of private-sector workers. Eleven of the forty laws reviewed in this report were enacted after 1999. Among these laws are the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The report focuses on key aspects of the federal whistleblower and anti-retaliation laws. For each law, the report summarizes the activities that are protected, how the law’s protections are enforced, whether the law provides a private right of action, the remedies prescribed by the law, and the year the law’s whistleblower or anti-retaliation provisions were adopted and amended. With regard to amendment dates, the report identifies only dates associated with substantive amendments. For enactments after 2001, the report provides information on congressional sponsorship and votes

ESTABLISHING SAFE THRESHOLDS TO IMPROVE EXERCISE CAPACITY IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETES WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE (IBD): A CRITICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC

Clinical Scenario: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) can present several challenges to athletic participation due to unpredictable disease activity and uncontrollable systemic symptoms that severely impact daily activities, and limit exercise/sports participation. Limited studies and a lack of standard guidelines for physical activity (PA) and exercise are additional barriers for patients. Limited sources have determined that exercise interventions of low-to-moderate intensity are safe and feasible for IBD patients. In theory, such interventions could promote improvements in exercise capacity and overall well-being. Focused Clinical Question: Is there evidence to suggest that a baseline of established safe exercise-intensities promote improvements in exercise capacity in collegiate athletes with IBD? Clinical Bottom Line: Aerobic exercise, resistance training, and combined exercise promotes improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle function, and body composition changes in the general IBD patient population. The applicability of these interventions specifically for collegiate athletes with IBD is questionable; however, there may be underlying practical implications for Athletic Trainers to use these exercise thresholds for gradually returning athletes to sport specific activities following resolution of disease activity. Strength of Recommendation: According to the Oxford Centre of Evidence- Based Medicine, there is variable evidence (ranging from level 4 to level 2 evidence) that suggests low-to-moderate aerobic and resistance exercise to be feasible and effective in promoting improvements in exercise capacity in IBD patients. Key Words: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), exercise, physical activity, exercise capacity, Ulcerative Colitis (UC), Crohn’s Disease (CD), collegiate athletes, sports participation, spor

Structure Segmentation and Transfer Faults in the Marcellus Shale, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania: Implications for Gas Recovery Efficiency and Risk Assessment Using 3D Seismic Attribute Analysis

The Marcellus Shale has become an important unconventional gas reservoir in the oil and gas industry. Fractures within this organic-rich black shale serve as an important component of porosity and permeability useful in enhancing production. Horizontal drilling is the primary approach for extracting hydrocarbons in the Marcellus Shale. Typically, wells are drilled perpendicular to natural fractures in an attempt to intersect fractures for effective hydraulic stimulation. If the fractures are contained within the shale, then hydraulic fracturing can enhance permeability by further breaking the already weakened rock. However, natural fractures can affect hydraulic stimulations by absorbing and/or redirecting the energy away from the wellbore, causing a decreased efficiency in gas recovery, as has been the case for the Clearfield County, Pennsylvania study area. Estimating appropriate distances away from faults and fractures, which may limit hydrocarbon recovery, is essential to reducing the risk of injection fluid migration along these faults. In an attempt to mitigate the negative influences of natural fractures on hydrocarbon extraction within the Marcellus Shale, fractures were analyzed through the aid of both traditional and advanced seismic attributes including variance, curvature, ant tracking, and waveform model regression. Through the integration of well log interpretations and seismic data, a detailed assessment of structural discontinuities that may decrease the recovery efficiency of hydrocarbons was conducted. High-quality 3D seismic data in Central Pennsylvania show regional folds and thrusts above the major detachment interval of the Salina Salt. In addition to the regional detachment folds and thrusts, cross-regional, northwest-trending lineaments were mapped. These lineaments may pose a threat to hydrocarbon productivity and recovery efficiency due to faults and fractures acting as paths of least resistance for induced hydraulic stimulation fluids. These lineaments may represent major transfer faults that serve as pathways for hydraulic fluid migration. Detection and evaluation of fracture orientation and intensity and emphasis on the relationship between fracture intensity and production potential is of high interest in the study area as it entails significant time and cost implications for both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon exploration and production

Spectroscopy studies of straincompensated mid-infrared QCL active regions on misoriented substrates

In this work, we perform spectroscopic studies of AlGaAs/InGaAs quantum cascade laser structures that demonstrate frequency mixing using strain-compensated active regions. Using a three-quantum well design based on diagonal transitions, we incorporate strain in the active region using single and double well configurations on various surface planes (100) and (111). We observe the influence of piezoelectric properties in molecular beam epitaxy grown structures, where the addition of indium in the GaAs matrix increases the band bending in between injector regions and demonstrates a strong dependence on process conditions that include sample preparation, deposition rates, mole fraction, and enhanced surface diffusion lengths. We produced mid-infrared structures under identical deposition conditions that differentiate the role of indium(strain) in intracavity frequency mixing and show evidence that this design can potentially be implemented using other material systems

Therapeutic Use of Self: A Guide to Integrate the 5 Love Languages into Practice

Healthcare institutions have become businesses and, subsequently, these institutions are oftentimes structured to maximize profits consequently leading to a sacrifice in quality of care (Beltrán-Salazar, 2014). The emphasis on business in healthcare results in a push for productivity and reimbursement consequently decreasing attention to the therapeutic relationship. There are many definitions that offer a better understanding to the idea of therapeutic use of self, but they offer little to guide therapists in what using therapeutic use of self looks like in everyday practice (Solman & Clouston, 2016). Additionally, a vast majority of occupational therapists perceive the therapeutic relationship to be vital elements to engagement in therapy, however, only half of therapists feel they sufficient knowledge about use of self beyond the basics he or she learned during their education (Taylor, Lee, Kielhofner, & Ketkar, 2009). A literature review was conducted on the current state of healthcare, topics relating to the 5 Love Languages (Chapman, 1992), lack of humanized client-centered care, therapeutic use of self, and the influence of use of self on therapy outcomes and client satisfaction. Concepts from the Canadian Model of Client Centered Enablement (CMCE) (Townsend et al., 2013), the framework of the 5 Love Languages, and information obtained from the literature review were used to guide development of the product. The final product is a guidebook that is intended to be used by occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants or the healthcare team. We believe the application of the 5 Love Languages to the therapeutic relationship will improve the therapy process for both the practitioner and the client and result in improved therapy outcomes

Life History of Maggie Lesher, MA, OTR/L

This life history is one of 29 life history interviews which are a part of a larger project, Life Histories of Individuals Who Have Been Influential in Developing Occupational Therapy (OT) in North Dakota and Wyoming. The purpose of this project is to gather information about the history and evolution of occupational therapy (OT) practice in North Dakota and Wyoming through life histories of individuals who have been influential in developing OT in these two states. It is anticipated that the life history process will be a powerful way to gather this information. This study is intended to provide current and future generations of occupational therapists a view of the history and how occupational therapy practice has evolved from its inception to current practice in North Dakota and Wyoming. An in-depth phone interview with Maggie Lesher, MA, OTR/L was conducted by two student researchers and both the student researchers and Maggie Lesher were in their homes at the time the phone interview took place. Maggie Lesher is a highly successful occupational therapist and is the founder of Children’s Theraplay – a home based agency with locations in Plymouth and Maplewood MN. Maggie has worked in multiple states and practice areas making the interview rich with information regarding occupational therapy practice. The findings of this study will be archived and made available on the University of North Dakota (UND) OT website. Informed consent was obtained by the student researchers prior to completing the interview with Maggie Lesher. Careful consideration of the Kawa Model was kept by the researchers throughout this process to root the focus of the study on the overall life experiences of the participant (Teah & Iwama, 2015). Emphasis was placed on the barriers the participant experienced, her personal attributes, and the physical and social environments that surrounded Maggie Lesher (Teah & Iwama, 2015).https://commons.und.edu/ot-oral-histories-posters/1018/thumbnail.jp