mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES


Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 238 / Wednesday, December 10, 2008 / Notices 75119 

(NIOSH), Department of Health and 


Human Services (HHS). 


ACTION: Notice. 


SUMMARY: The Department of Health and 

Human Services (HHS) gives notice as 

required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a 

decision to evaluate a petition to 

designate a class of employees at the 

Vitro Manufacturing in Canonsburg, 

Pennsylvania, to be included in the 

Special Exposure Cohort under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act of 2000. The 

initial proposed definition for the class 

being evaluated, subject to revision as 

warranted by the evaluation, is as 

follows: 

Facility: Vitro Manufacturing. 

Location: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. 

Job Titles and/or Job Duties: All 

Atomic Weapons Employer employees. 

Period of Employment: August 13, 

1942 through December 31, 1957. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Larry Elliott, Director, Office of 

Compensation Analysis and Support, 

National Institute for Occupational 

Safety and Health (NIOSH), 4676 

Columbia Parkway, MS C–46, 

Cincinnati, OH 45226, Telephone 513– 

533–6800 (this is not a toll-free 

number). Information requests can also 

be submitted by e-mail to 

OCAS@CDC.GOV. 

Dated: December 4, 2008. 

Christine M. Branche, 

Acting Director, National Institute for 

Occupational Safety and Health. 

[FR Doc. E8–29244 Filed 12–9–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–19–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Institute for Occupational 

Safety and Health 

Final Effect of Designation of a Class 

of Employees for Addition to the 

Special Exposure Cohort 

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC), Department of Health 

and Human Services (HHS). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Department of Health and 

Human Services (HHS) gives notice 

concerning the final effect of the HHS 

decision to designate a class of 

employees at Connecticut Aircraft 

Nuclear Engine Laboratory in 

Middletown, Connecticut, as an 

addition to the Special Exposure Cohort 

(SEC) under the Energy Employees 

Occupational Illness Compensation 

Program Act of 2000. On October 24, 

2008, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 

7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS 

designated the following class of 

employees as an addition to the SEC: 

All employees of the Department of Energy 

(DOE), its predecessor agencies, and DOE 

contractors or subcontractors who worked at 

the Connecticut Aircraft Nuclear Engine 

Laboratory in Middletown, CT, from January 

1, 1958 through December 31, 1965 for a 

number of work days aggregating at least 250 

work days occurring either solely under this 

employment or in combination with work 

days within the parameters established for 

one or more other classes of employees in the 

Special Exposure Cohort. 

This designation became effective on 

November 23, 2008, as provided for 

under 42 U.S.C. 7384l(14)(C). Hence, 

beginning on November 23, 2008, 

members of this class of employees, 

defined as reported in this notice, 

became members of the Special 

Exposure Cohort. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Larry Elliott, Director, Office of 

Compensation Analysis and Support, 

National Institute for Occupational 

Safety and Health (NIOSH), 4676 

Columbia Parkway, MS C–46, 

Cincinnati, OH 45226, Telephone 513– 

533–6800 (this is not a toll-free 

number). Information requests can also 

be submitted by e-mail to 

OCAS@CDC.GOV. 

Dated: December 5, 2008. 

Christine M. Branche, 

Acting Director, National Institute for 

Occupational Safety and Health. 

[FR Doc. E8–29246 Filed 12–9–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–19–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Office of the Secretary 

Findings of Scientific Misconduct 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that 

the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) 

and the Assistant Secretary for Health 

have taken final action in the following 

case: 

Homer D. Venters, Jr., M.D., 

University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign: Based on the report of an 

investigation conducted by the 

University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign (UIUC) and extensive 

additional image analysis conducted by 

the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), 

the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) 

found that Dr. Homer D. Venters, former 

graduate student, Neuroscience 

Program, UIUC, engaged in scientific 

misconduct in research supported by 

National Institute of Mental Health 

(NIMH), National Institutes of Health 

(NIH), awards R01 MH051569 and F30 

MH12558 and National Institute on 

Aging (NIA), NIH, award R01 AG06246. 

Specifically, PHS found that the 

Respondent committed misconduct in 

science: 

• By intentionally and knowingly 

preparing and including duplicate 

image data in Figures 5 and 10 of PHS 

fellowship application F31 MH12558, 

‘‘Neurodegeneration via TNF-alpha 

inhibition of IGF–1,’’ submitted in 1999, 

which was funded as F30 MH12558 

from June 1, 2000, to May 31, 2003. 

Because the duplicate data were labeled 

as having been obtained from different 

experiments, the results for at least one 

of the two figures were intentionally 

falsified and constitute an act of 

scientific misconduct. 

• By intentionally and knowingly 

preparing and including duplicate 

image data in Figure 3 and/or 4 of a 

manuscript submitted and published as: 

Venters, H.D., et al. ‘‘A New Mechanism 

of Neurodegeneration: A 

Proinflammatory Cytokine Inhibits 

Receptor Signaling by a Survival 

Peptide.’’ Proceedings of the National 

Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 96:9879– 

9884, 1999. 

• By preparing and providing to his 

dissertation committee in March 2000 a 

thesis proposal entitled ‘‘An Alternate 

Mechanism of Neurodegeneration: 

Silencing of Insulin-like Growth FactorI survival signals by Tumor Necrosis 

Factor-a,’’ which contained five falsified 

figures: Figures 1.3, 1.4a, 2.1b, 2.3e, and 

2.5b. In each figure, he reused data 

within the same figure or in another 

thesis proposal figure as representing 

differently treated samples or as data 

obtained with different immunoblotting 

antisera. 

• In March and April 2001, 

Respondent included several of the 

same falsified figures as in the thesis 

proposal and multiple additional 

falsified figures in his dissertation 

‘‘Silencing of Insulin-like Growth Factor 

I Neuronal Survival Signals by Tumor 

Necrosis Factor-a.’’ In all, Figures 3.3, 

3.4a, 3.4b, 4.1b, 4.3a, 4.5b, 5.1a, 5.2, 

5.4a, 5.5a, 5.6a, 5.7a, and 5.8a were 

falsified. In each instance, he assembled 

figures by reusing significant data, on 

some occasions after manipulating the 

orientation of the data, either within the 

same figure or in other figures related to 

his thesis and represented the data 

falsely as coming from different samples 

or different experiments. 

Dr. Venters has entered into a 

Voluntary Settlement Agreement