24704 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 86 / Wednesday, May 5, 2010 / Notices 

with LPS. Respondent also used a 

second image twice, labeling it once as 

‘‘no LPS’’ and the second time as ‘‘24 

hours with LPS.’’ 

11. Respondent knowingly and 

intentionally falsified a figure that 

purports to represent viral decay in 

rectal mucosa and included the figure as 

a slide in two PowerPoint presentations 

and three NIH grant applications. 

12. Respondent knowingly and 

intentionally falsified: (a) A 

histopathology figure that was described 

in a paper published in the Journal of 

Infectious Diseases 83:1466, 2001, as 

inguinal lymph nodes from an untreated 

AIDS patient using in situ PCR to show 

the presence of HIV–1 cells when it was 

actually from a tissue expressing the 

neomycin marker; (b) the gel images 

resembling Figures 2A and C, which 

Respondent claimed to be based on 

lymph node cells, although he reported 

the gel images elsewhere to represent 

results from rectal tissue; and (c) various 

versions of these blots that Respondent 

reported elsewhere and labeled 

differently with respect to the copy 

numbers detected and as detecting DNA 

in some instance and RNA in others. 

13. Respondent knowingly and 

intentionally falsified Figures 2DI and 

2DII included in a paper published in 

the Journal of Leukocyte Biology 

68:351–359, 2000. 

14. Respondent knowingly and 

intentionally falsified Figure 4, Panels A 

and B, in NIDCR, NIH, grant application 

1 R01 DE014827–01 by manipulating 

the source images. 

15. Respondent knowingly and 

intentionally falsified a number of 

figures and made false statements in the 

text of NIAID, NIH, grant application 1 

R01 AI051954–01 submitted jointly 

with a colleague by relabeling figures 

based on research carried out with HIV– 

1 or HIV–2 and identifying the figures 

and text as research conducted with 

ovine lentivirus (OvLV). 

ORI issued a charge letter 

enumerating the above findings of 

misconduct in science and proposing 

HHS administrative actions. Dr. Brodie 

subsequently requested a hearing before 

an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of 

the Departmental Appeals Board to 

dispute these findings. In January 2009, 

the ALJ issued a ruling holding that 

there were no triable issues challenging 

ORI’s findings that there were materially 

false statements, images, and other data 

in the relevant publications, 

presentations, and grant applications. 

However, the ALJ held that Dr. Brodie 

raised triable issues about his intent to 

commit scientific misconduct and the 

reasonableness of the proposed 

debarment of seven (7) years. 

On January 12, 2010, the ALJ issued 

a recommended decision to the HHS 

Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) 

granting summary disposition to ORI. 

The ALJ also stated that Dr. Brodie 

committed scientific misconduct on 

multiple occasions and that its extent 

amply justified debarment for a period 

of seven (7) years. Pursuant to 42 CFR 

93.523(c), the ASH forwarded the ALJ’s 

recommended decision to the HHS 

Debarring Official, which constituted 

the findings of fact required under 2 

CFR parts 180 and 376. 

On February 1, 2010, Dr. Brodie 

submitted a letter to the HHS Debarring 

Official with attachments to request that 

the ALJ’s recommended decision be 

rejected as a whole. On February 26, 

2010, Dr. Brodie submitted a letter 

requesting the opportunity to meet with 

the HHS Debarring Official to orally 

present the reasons supporting his 

request that the ALJ’s recommended 

decision be rejected. However, the HHS 

Debarring Official determined that Dr. 

Brodie had been afforded an 

opportunity to contest ORI’s findings of 

scientific misconduct in accordance 

with 42 CFR part 93, subpart E. Given 

the findings of facts in this case, the 

HHS Debarring Official determined that 

the issues in his presentation in 

opposition to the ALJ’s recommended 

decision did not raise a genuine dispute 

over facts material to the recommended 

debarment. Accordingly, the HHS 

Debarring Official also denied Dr. 

Brodie’s request to make an oral 

presentation and issued a notice of 

debarment to begin on March 18, 2010, 

and end on March 17, 2017. 

On March 23, 2010, Dr. Brodie 

submitted a letter requesting a 

postponement of the effective date of 

the debarment. This request was denied 

by the Debarring Official on April 6, 

2010. 

Thus, the misconduct in science 

findings set forth above became 

effective, and the following 

administrative actions have been 

implemented for a period of seven (7) 

years, beginning on March 18, 2010: 

(1) Dr. Brodie has been debarred from 

any contracting or subcontracting with 

any agency of the United States 

Government and from eligibility or 

involvement in nonprocurement 

programs of the United States 

Government referred to as ‘‘covered 

transactions’’ pursuant to the 

Department of Health and Human 

Service’s Implementation (2 CFR part 

376 et seq.) of OMB Guidelines to 

Agencies on Governmentwide 

Debarment and Suspension, 2 CFR part 

180; and 

(2) Dr. Brodie is prohibited from 

serving in any advisory capacity to PHS 

including but not limited to service on 

any PHS advisory committee, board, 

and/or peer review committee, or as 

consultant. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Director, Division of Investigative 

Oversight, Office of Research Integrity, 

1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 750, 

Rockville, MD 20852, (240) 453–8800. 

John Dahlberg, 

Director, Division of Investigative Oversight, 

Office of Research Integrity. 

[FR Doc. 2010–10605 Filed 5–4–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–17–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

[30Day–10–0733] 

Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork 

Reduction Act Review 

The Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC) publishes a list of 

information collection requests under 

review by the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) in compliance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 

Chapter 35). To request a copy of these 

requests, call Maryam I. Daneshvar, the 

CDC Reports Clearance Officer, at (404) 

639–5960 or send an e-mail to 

omb@cdc.gov. Send written comments 

to CDC Desk Officer, Office of 

Management and Budget, Washington, 

DC or by fax to (202) 395–5806. Written 

comments should be received within 30 

days of this notice. 

Proposed Project 

Early Hearing Detection and 

Intervention Hearing Screening and 

Follow-up Survey (OMB No. 0920–0733 

exp. 10/31/2009)—Reinstatement With 

Change—National Center on Birth 

Defects and Developmental Disabilities 

(NCBDDD), Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention (CDC). 

Background and Brief Description 

The National Center on Birth Defects 

and Developmental Disabilities at CDC 

promotes the health of babies, children, 

and adults with disabilities. As part of 

these efforts the Center is actively 

involved in addressing hearing loss (HL) 

among newborns and infants. HL is a 

common birth defect that affects 

approximately 12,000 infants each year 

and, when left undetected, can result in 

developmental delays. As awareness 

about infant HL increases, so does the 


sroberts on DSKD5P82C1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 86 / Wednesday, May 5, 2010 / Notices 24705 

demand for accurate information about 

rates of screening, referral, loss to 

follow-up, and prevalence. This 

information is important for: (a) Helping 

to ensure infants and children are 

receiving recommended screening and 

follow-up services, (b) identifying 

reasons for not receiving recommended 

services and (c) documenting the 

occurrence of differing degrees of HL 

among infants. These data will also 

assist the States in Early Hearing 

Detection and Intervention (EHDI) 

programs with quality improvement 

activities and provide information that 

will be helpful in assessing the impact 

of Federal initiatives. The public will be 

able to access this information via the 

CDC EHDI Web site (http:// 

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/ehdi). 

Given the lack of a standardized and 

readily accessible source of data, the 

CDC EHDI program developed a survey 

to be used annually that utilizes 

uniform definitions to collect aggregate, 

standardized EHDI data from States and 

territories. The request to complete this 

survey is planned to be disseminated to 

57 respondents via an e-mail, which 

will include a summary of the request 

and other relevant information. We 

anticipate that about 50 of the 57 

coordinators will complete and return 

the survey. Minor changes to this 

survey, based on respondent feedback, 

are planned in order to make the survey 

easier to complete and further improve 

data quality. These changes include 

adding a question about how many 

infants with hearing loss are receiving 

only monitoring services, simplifying 

the table for reporting type and severity 

of hearing loss data, and expanding the 

maternal race categories in the 

demographic section. There are no costs 

to the respondents other than their time. 

The estimated annualized burden hours 

are 210. 

ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED BURDEN HOURS

Respondents Number of 

respondents 

Number of responses per 

respondent 

Average 

burden per 

response 

(in hours) 

EHDI Program State Program Coordinators Contacted ............................................................. 57 1 10/60 

EHDI Program State Program Coordinators Who Return the Survey ........................................ 50 1 4 

Dated: April 28, 2010. 

Maryam I. Daneshvar, 

Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention. 

[FR Doc. 2010–10587 Filed 5–4–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–18–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

[60 Day–10–10CV] 

Proposed Data Collections Submitted 

for Public Comment and 

Recommendations 

In compliance with the requirement 

of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for 

opportunity for public comment on 

proposed data collection projects, the 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic 

summaries of proposed projects. 

Alternatively, to obtain a copy of the 

data collection plans and instrument, 

call 404–639–5960 and send comments 

to Maryam I. Daneshvar, CDC Reports 

Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, 

NE., MS–D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; 

comments may also be sent by e-mail to 

omb@cdc.gov. 

Comments are invited on (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have a 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarify of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of information technology. Written 

comments should be received within 60 

days of this notice. 

Proposed Project 

Early Aberration Reporting System 

(EARS) Registration Module—New— 

National Center for Emerging and 

Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) 

(proposed), Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention (CDC). 

Background and Brief Description 

To support two of CDC’s main priority 

areas: (1) Improving CDC’s support for 

state and local health departments, and 

(2) strengthening surveillance and 

epidemiology, CDC is requesting 

approval from the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) to improve the Early 

Aberration Reporting System (EARS) by 

collecting data from individuals who 

request a download of EARS from the 

CDC website. 

The Early Aberration Reporting 

System, developed within the Division 

of Bioterrorism Preparedness and 

Response, is a web-enabled tool that 

analyzes public health surveillance data 

using methods that detect abnormal 

trends that could possibly indicate an 

outbreak of infectious disease. The local 

public health professionals manage the 

entire tool and can implement the 

defaults or can adjust the tool in order 

to meet their local needs. The goal of 

this process is to assist public health 

professionals in the early identification 

of outbreaks of disease as well as 

bioterrorism events. EARS is used to 

assess whether the current number of 

reported cases of an event is higher than 

usual. 

The term syndromic surveillance is 

used to describe surveillance that uses 

health-related data that precede 

diagnosis and that signals a sufficient 

probability of a case or an outbreak of 

infectious disease to warrant further 

public health response. Syndromic 

surveillance systems are used by state, 

local, national and international health 

departments to monitor syndrome-based 

(e.g., case information collected in 

emergency departments (EDs) and 

diagnostic data sources for early 

detection of outbreaks and other public 

health events). More recently these 

systems are used during public health 

responses to provide more rapid near 

real-time situational awareness 

regarding the health status of the target 

population. EARS was the first software 

platform to support local syndromic 

surveillance systems. EARS has been 

designed and used to monitor 

syndromic data from emergency 

departments, 911 calls, physician office 

data, school and business absenteeism, 

over-the-counter drug sales, laboratory 

testing and results data and reportable 

disease surveillance systems. In the past 

several years, EARS systems have been 

integral in the local public health 

surveillance arsenal. EARS has been 

used at events such as the Beijing 

Summer Olympics; multiple 


sroberts on DSKD5P82C1PROD with NOTICES