The BFOQ Defense: Title VII’s Concession to Gender Discrimination

Should the BFOQ exception still exist? Because permitting discrimination under Title VII seems fundamentally contrary to the anti-discrimination purpose of the statute, this article questions whether the BFOQ defense is consistent with the aims of Title VII or whether, in actuality, the defense undermines the Act\u27s effectiveness by providing a loophole for employers to participate in the discriminatory practices Title VII seeks to forbid

Sidelined: Title IX Retaliation Cases and Women’s Leadership in College Athletics

This paper summarizes some of the initial research findings obtained in the SERMON project, funded by Wireless@KTH. The main focus of this paper is on video streaming transmission and the quantification of how much can be gained, in terms of user satisfaction and network resource utilization, by exploiting this semantic knowledge at network level. For this purpose, different QoE-centric RRM strategies are proposed and their performances evaluated in respect to a “classical” agnostic scheme, in a scenario where users have different QoE requirements for different content types and as a function of the device screen resolution during a live video streaming transmission.QC 20140519</p

Health status of COPD patients undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation : a comparative responsiveness of the CAT and SGRQ

The authors would like to thank all the participants who participated in this study and the CEO of the state general hospital for his support.The St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) assessment test (CAT) are the measures used to assess health status. This study aims to examine the responsiveness of these tools by severity of dyspnoea category in patients with COPD. Forty-nine COPD patients who underwent a 12-week pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) programme were assessed at baseline, 12 weeks and at 28-week follow-up. Patients were categorized into two groups by severity of dyspnoea category (i.e. mild to moderate (modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) 1–2) and severe to very severe (mMRC 3–4)) using the mMRC dyspnoea scale. Effect size (ES) was computed as estimates of responsiveness. The SGRQ demonstrated greater responsiveness by total sample (SGRQ, ES = 0.87; CAT, ES = 0.75) and for the mMRC 3–4 category (SGRQ, ES = 0.91; CAT, ES = 0.76) on completion of PR. At 28-week follow-up, overall comparable responsiveness of the CAT and SGRQ was identified by total sample (SGRQ, ES = 0.75; CAT, ES = 0.74) and by severity of dyspnoea category. The symptom, impact and activity domains of the SGRQ showed good responsiveness, with greater ESs obtained overall for the mMRC 3–4 category. On completion of PR, the SGRQ demonstrates a greater responsiveness with COPD patients, especially in relation to the mMRC 3–4 category, while both the CAT and SGRQ show comparable responsiveness on follow-up.peer-reviewe

Pulmonary rehabilitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease : outcomes in a 12 week programme

Objective. The optimal time-frame for pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is still debated. A 12 week programme was designed looking at whether the benefits were reached at or before a 12 week period of PR for COPD patients. Method. Seventy-five patients (59 males, 16 females) aged 40 75 years were referred from the local general hospital in Malta. Baseline assessments were carried out on all patients 2 weeks before initiation of the programme. Sixty patients were eligible to start a twice-weekly, 12 week multidisciplinary programme delivered after the screening process. The Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), dyspnoea score using the Borg scale, spirometry testing, plethysmography, COPD Assessment Tool (CAT) score, St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and Hospital and Anxiety scale score were monitored at 4 weekly intervals throughout the 12 weeks of PR for these COPD patients. Results. The 6MWT distance increased by a mean total of 132.45 m (p < 0.001) by 12 weeks, with the highest change recorded in the first 4 weeks for the milder COPD patients. Lung function test improvements were marginal. Borg scale readings at rest and following exertion decreased significantly from weeks 0 to 4 but remained fairly constant thereafter. The Body mass index, airway Obstruction, Dyspnoea, and Exercise capacity (BODE) index, SGRQ and CAT score values decreased significantly throughout the weeks irrespective of the initial Medical Research Council score. Anxiety scoring decreased significantly by 12 weeks, while the depression rating improved by 8 weeks. Conclusion. These findings show that 12 weeks of PR in this cohort of COPD patients resulted in clinically significant changes in functional outcome measures which are supported by statistically significant changes in health-related quality of life measures. In milder COPD cases, by 4 weeks of PR gains in exercise tolerance had already resulted. The more severe group required more time to obtain improvements. Therefore, hospitals could organize shorter PR programmes for larger numbers of patients with milder COPD.peer-reviewe

Systemic inflammation in COPD is not influenced by pulmonary rehabilitation

Purpose: Pulmonary rehabilitation is known to lead to improvements in exercise tolerance, health-related quality of life and help reduce symptoms. Exercise, one of the largest components of such an intervention, although of great benefit, can increase the inflammatory response related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depending on intensity and duration. Through this study, the effects of a 12week, high-intensity PR programme on COPD inflammatory-related markers were investigated. Materials and methods: This study is a longitudinal, observational type of study. Sixty COPD patients were enrolled, 49 of which completed the programme. A 2-h high-intensity PR programme was delivered, twice weekly for 12 weeks. The following markers were assessed at baseline, 4, 8 and 12 weeks through rehabilitation – C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, neutrophil, eosinophil counts, complete blood count, six-minute walk test and St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire. Serum amyloid A levels were assessed at baseline, week 8 and 12 and exhaled NO at baseline and upon completion of the programme. Results: This 12-week PR programme resulted in no changes in the inflammatory markers but resulted in significant improvements in both the 6MW distance and health quality of life. Conclusions: Beneficial effects on functional and HRQoL measures resulted, which, however, appear unrelated to changes in the systemic inflammatory markers.peer-reviewe

Teachers\u27 Acceptability Ratings of Arbitrary Versus Functional Based Reinforcers

Whether teachers find a reinforcer based on a functional assessment more acceptable than an arbitrarily selected reinforcer was investigated. Participants consisted of 94 elementary school teachers from 11 (8 rural, 3 suburban) schools in Illinois. Teachers were asked to complete the Intervention Rating Profile-15 after reading one of the three problem vignettes that described a common behavior problem that was maintained by peer attention. In one condition the proposed treatment included peer attention as a reward; the two remaining conditions included teacher attention and tangible items as rewards. A one-way ANOVA revealed a significant preference for the treatments based on peer attention. There was a significant correlation between acceptability and the reported likelihood of using the intervention. The implications of these results for school-based consultation are discussed