Monday, August 8, 2022
Preliminary Note: The U.S. Department of Transportation recently released a long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to modernize the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program regulations. This blog is part of a series looking at some of the significant proposed changes. A copy of all of the proposed changes can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/21/2022-14586/disadvantaged-business-enterprise-and-airport-concession-disadvantaged-business-enterprise-program.
A frequent area of frustration for DBEs is the interstate certification process (the process by which a DBE can get certified in a state other than their home state). This frustration stems from a slow-moving process with multiple requests for information that go beyond what is permitted by the rules.
Well, the USDOT shares those frustrations and has proposed sweeping changes to simplify the process. In analyzing its appeal decisions, the USDOT found that it reversed a whopping 77% of appeals involving denials of interstate certification. Of those reversals, 35% were because the certifier demand that the firm provide information that went beyond what is allowed in the current regulations, 49 C.F.R. § 26.85(c). Another 26% of those appeals involved certifiers who denied the application for interstate certification for no reason!
The proposed rules require the state where interstate certification is sought (State B) to accept the home state’s certification- establishing reciprocity. The required materials for an application for interstate certification are also greatly reduced- a cover letter, a copy of screenshot showing their company’s listing in their home state’s UCP DBE directory, and a signed Declaration of Eligibility.
State B will have 10 business days to verify the certification and grant interstate certification. This is also a big change, where currently an interstate certification application can drag on for months. Many companies apply for interstate certification to bid on a particular job or project. This new deadline will help those companies ensure that they will receive a timely response to their application.
Have thoughts or suggestions on the proposed PNW rules? You can make your voice heard by offering your comment here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket/DOT-OST-2022-0051/document.
©2022 Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & GefskyNational Law Review, Volume XII, Number 220
The College of Computing & Informatics distinguishes between teaching assistants (TAs) and course assistants (CAs): doctoral students are hired as TAs while upperclassmen undergraduates and master’s students are hired as CAs. Doctoral students should contact their advisor for questions about TA designation.
Computer Science (CS) course assistants work with faculty in CI, CS, and SE courses. Information Science (IS) course assistants work with faculty in INFO, DSCI and CT courses. All applicants will be considered first for positions in their home department.
Availability of positions varies by term depending on the courses offered and course enrollments.
Once you are approved for the course assistant pool, you will be asked to provide availability to work in upcoming terms.
If you are interested in being a course assistant, please click here to submit an application (this application is for course assistants only).
Thomas DeChiaro is the Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO), responsible for shaping the University's information technology vision to support and extend the impact of Drexel's strategic initiatives.
DeChiaro came to Drexel in January 2016 with more than 20 years of strategic IT experience and leadership in both higher education and the private sector. As CIO at Western Connecticut State University, he was responsible for all technology supporting the university's two campuses, and he served on the CIO leadership team supporting Connecticut's Board of Regents for Higher Education.
Before beginning his career in higher education, DeChiaro was senior vice president of the commercial systems group for defense contractor DSCI, where he led the commercialization strategy for all technology disciplines. He was responsible for working across DSCI's global divisions in order to transform the typical Department of Defense culture into one focused on commercialization and multi-use technology, was involved with DSCI's government relations activities, and served as executive relationship manager to IBM, Microsoft, Boeing, HP, GE, L3 Communications and others. While responsible for DSCI's Research & Intellectual Property strategy and for raising capital, he was instrumental in raising $10 million dollars for DSCI Research and Development.
Prior to DSCI, DeChiaro managed the information strategy for IBM's Intellectual Property Licensing division and later served as executive program director for IBM Corporate Functions. He also chaired the Corporate Functions Investment Review Board and managed a $110 million operating budget. During his tenure, IBM recognized DeChiaro with an Outstanding Technical Achievement award.
Along with his strategic IT expertise, DeChiaro brings an entrepreneurial spirit to the role of CIO. He serves as a C-level executive advisor/screener for Astia, providing advice and counsel to Astia's network of angel investors and venture capital firms fueling the growth of innovative women-led ventures worldwide.
DeChiaro earned a bachelor of science degree in computer and information science from Brooklyn College and competed his MBA at Western Connecticut State University. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds several professional certificates from George Washington University.
These accomplishments, transforming clinical gastroenterology conceptually, diagnostically, and therapeutically, reflect the comprehensive scope of gastroenterology's progress during the 20th century. As in other fields of knowledge, the pathways of discovery varied,[8,9] and included the following:
Serendipity -- the unplanned, chance discovery (eg, x-rays, penicillin)
The "flash of insight" -- eg, secretin, gastrin
Exploitation of an unexpected observation (hepatitis viruses)
Clinical application of an unrelated laboratory finding (oral cholecystography)
Sophisticated technology (endoscopy, radiologic imaging)
Perseverance and preparation (H2 blockers)
The ingenuity of the prepared mind (again, penicillin)
The potential of the inquiring, unindoctrinated clinician (H pylori and peptic ulcer link)
The prevailing scientific climate ("Zeitgeist"; eg, antibiotics)
The primary achievement of gastroenterology during the past century has been the application of new scientific knowledge, technology, and controlled clinical trials to the study of gastrointestinal problems. That these advances have occurred without abandoning the physician's traditional concern for the humanitarian needs of the patient is characteristic of gastroenterology. The ultimate objective of establishing the etiology and pathogenesis of gastrointestinal disease appears more attainable now that gastroenterology's investigative frontiers are at the cutting edge of modern science.
As we enter the 21st century, no less than four scientific "revolutions" are in progress: biology, biotechnology, information technology, and genomics (a discipline emerging recently from the collective advances in genetics and The Human Genome Project). The challenge for gastroenterology will be to utilize these considerable resources to strengthen its research effort and to apply the new knowledge towards the more effective management of digestive disease.
The impressive scientific advances made during the 20th century, the reorientation of medical education, and the growth of medical specialization collectively transformed gastroenterology from an empirical clinical activity to an increasingly scientific, procedure-oriented multidiscipline (see Tables 1, 2, 3).[1]
Early in this century, access to the digestive tract was limited. Diagnostic and therapeutic resources were scarce. Procedurally, physicians were confined to blood counts and urine analysis, a few blood chemical analyses, gastric aspiration for hydrochloric acid, testing the stools for occult blood (guaiac test slide) and bacterial pathogens, rigid tube proctoscopy, and primitive x-rays of the esophagus, stomach, colon, and gallbladder. Valid concepts of digestive disease were lacking. Visceroptosis, "autointoxification," "neurasthenia," and dyspepsia were common diagnoses.
Today's comprehensive diagnostic capabilities, including fiberoptic endoscopy, biopsies of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon, x-ray (CT scan)-guided biopsy of the liver and the pancreas, tests of hepatic and pancreatic functions, breath tests, quality x-rays, ultrasonography, computerized abdominal tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and assessments of gastrointestinal motility and gastrointestinal vascular status were yet to be developed. Therapeutic resources, including blood transfusions, sulfonamides, antibiotics, adrenocortical steroids, immune modifiers, H2 blockers, proton pump inhibitors, anti-inflammatory compounds, nutritional supports, vaccines, cancer chemotherapy, and organ transplantation were unavailable. And abdominal surgery, following the discovery of anesthesia (in 1846) and aseptic technique (1870s), was only in the early stages of development.
