The scenario of two families harmoniously melding into one new entity, just like the Brady Bunch, usually differs from the reality most step and non-traditional families experience. Family therapists have long recognized the unrealistic idea the term "blended family" puts forward and the term has mostly fallen out of favor. It conjures up the vision of unrelated children seamlessly coming together into a family headed by two parents, one of whom is often largely unknown to the children. The reality is that life in a blended family is not always rosy. Demographers ...

Hospitals are facilities where ill and injured people should feel they are receiving the best possible care for their conditions. Unfortunately, a 1999 study found that medical mistakes were responsible for 98,000 deaths and more than 1 million injuries per year. This shocked the public and led many to perceive hospitals as hazardous to your health. Since 1999, states, hospitals and patient advocates have been more involved in efforts to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety and health. Despite these efforts, the movement for patient safety has not produced ...

2010 saw a drastic increase in the number of workplace disability discrimination claims. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency received a record 100,000 complaints of disability discrimination in 2010, a 17% increase over the previous year. The rise in claims was attributed in part to amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that went into effect in 2009. Under the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Congress increased the scope of qualifying disabilities to make it easier for individuals to receive protection under the important ...

Government investigations always demand a balancing of interests. While we want investigators to monitor those who seek to harm others, we expect that we have certain privacy protections. We want the reassurances that our government is doing everything possible to prevent terrorist attacks, but we don't want the government to invade the privacy of law-abiding citizens. Over the past decade, our government has assembled the most technologically sophisticated system for collecting information about Americans in the country's history, according to the Washington Post. Combining ...

When a child who has been receiving Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) benefits turns 18, he or she is not automatically eligible to continue receiving disability benefits. Disability benefits for children are different than disability benefits for adults who have been disabled since childhood, and the federal government uses different standards for evaluating disability in children and adults. Accordingly, it is important that children receiving SSI payments who are on the verge of adulthood and their caretakers understand these distinctions and can properly prepare ...

npower will launch a new TV campaign promoting its new easier to understand bills from the beginning of February. The new npower energy bills have been designed incorporating feedback from both Consumer Focus (the statutory consumer champion for the UK) and Which?. The bill carries the Plain English Crystal Mark for its 'Jargon Busting' page. The new 20 second TV ad, designed and produced by Aardman Animations, features 'Penny', npower's customer service representative, solving a 'Countdown-style' conundrum. The new TV ad will be supported by a multi-media campaign ...

Littlewoods Europe has announced the launch of its new season collection featuring over 10,000 new product lines. The new collection includes over 6,000 new fashion lines for the whole family with extensive ranges for women, men and kids. Almost 2,000 ladies fashion lines in plus sizes are available. New brand ranges for the Spring 2011 collection include footwear from Carvela, and Ravel plus women's fashion from Awear, Mint Velvet and Gloria Vanderbilt. New entries to the menswear collection include Goodsouls by Steve Jones, Pepe Jeans, Penguin and Palladium footwear. A ...

Foster Care Associates (FCA) has reacted to the increased demand for parent and child foster carers across the South of England through a refocussed carer recruitment campaign. Parent and child placements are provided to parents and their children when there are concerns over the parent's circumstances and/or ability to perform the parenting role. It is the preferable option to residential care and/or separation of a parent and their child(ren). FCA's parent and child fostering services provide the opportunity for parents to develop their skills in a supportive family ...

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Joseph Woodley is making waves throughout the book industry and the world with his book, 'When the Prodigal Son Becomes the Father' and his youth wellness program called, "The H.e.r.o. Project" (www.theheroproject.com). His timely message of "promoting strong persons, strong families and strong communities through spiritual, physical and psychological fitness and wellness" is receiving great recognition and acclaim throughout the nation and the world. His strong personal faith and commitment to family and service to mankind, has ensured that Joseph Woodley is poised as ...

Wexel Art is proud to announce that it has partnered with one of the most renowned product designers in the world, the legendary Eva Zeisel, to make design history. Wexel Art is introducing the first frame collection designed by Zeisel, who continues her remarkable career at age 104. The Wexel Art frames will premiere at the New York Gift Show, January 30- February 3, 2011. In light of its importance as a collector's item, the first 250 frames will be numbered with a guarantee of authenticity. "The immense honor of working with a legendary designer like Eva Zeisel ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---University of Michigan researchers have uncovered molecular signals that regulate catch-up growth---the growth spurt that occurs when normal conditions are restored after a fetus, young animal or child has been ill, under stress or deprived of enough food or oxygen to grow properly. The results, published in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Development, could lead to better understanding of why babies who undergo catch-up growth are at higher risk in later life for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and other health problems. "Catch-up growth ...

Each year, approximately 150,000 Canadians have a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes known as a mini-stroke. New research published today in Stroke, the journal of the American Heart Association shows these attacks may not be transient at all. They in fact create lasting damage to the brain. The stroke research team, led by Dr. Lara Boyd, physical therapist and neuroscientist with the Brain Research Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia, studied 13 patients from the Stroke Prevention Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital and ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) and Water Resources Research (WRR). In this release: China's lakes changed dramatically in recent decades Climate commitment in an uncertain world New satellite data improve estimates of ocean circulation Reversals in Saturn's polar radio emissions Modeling an asteroid's giant impact crater Tectonic plates relocked after 2005 earthquake in northeastern Japan Links to rivers affect Arctic lake habitat diversity in Canada More accurate ...

Australian researchers have come one step closer to understanding how the rhythm of the heartbeat is controlled and why many common drugs, including some antibiotics, antihistamines and anti-psychotics, can cause a potentially fatal abnormal heart rhythm. It is estimated around 40-50% of all drugs in development will block one of the main 'channels' that carries electricity in the heart and, as a result, can cause heart rhythm problems called cardiac arrhythmias. Most sudden cardiac deaths are caused by cardiac arrhythmias. Since 1996, nine drugs have been withdrawn ...

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Office of Naval Research's (ONR) TechSolutions department is set to deliver to Navy Special Warfare Command personnel later this year new protective eyewear that will eliminate the need for warfighters to stop to change out colored lenses to accommodate differences in light levels. The Fast-Tint Protective Eyewear (FTPE) changes color quicker than transitional lenses commonly found at an optometrist's office. "Transition time is less than 0.5 seconds," said Stephanie Everett, ONR's TechSolutions program manager. "Currently, warfighters are using ...

Previously linked to the severity of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in humans, vitamin D deficiency has now been shown to alter lung structure and function in young mice. The new study, conducted by researchers in Australia, offers the first concrete evidence linking vitamin D deficiency with deficits in lung function and altered lung structure. The findings were published online ahead of the print edition of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "The results of this study clearly demonstrate ...

Starting hormone therapy at around the time of menopause is associated with a greater risk of breast cancer compared to starting after a longer gap, according to a study published online Jan. 28 in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In this large, prospectively followed cohort of women, those who started hormone therapy five years or more after menopause had little or no increased risk, regardless of the type of hormone therapy used, how long they used it, and whether they were overweight or obese. Many studies have established that breast cancer incidence ...

Many different aspects are involved in predicting high water and floods, such as the type of precipitation, wind, buildings and vegetation. The greater the number of variables included in predictive models, the better the prediction will be. However, the models will inevitably become increasingly more complex. PhD student from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands) Steven Weijs uses basic insight from the information theory (Shannon's Information Theory) to demonstrate the cohesion between this added complexity, the information from observational data ...

Exposure to worm infections in the womb may protect a newborn infant from developing eczema, a study funded by the Wellcome Trust suggests. A large trial in Uganda showed that treating a pregnant woman for worm infections increased her child's chances of developing the allergic skin disease. Published this week in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, the research supports the so-called 'hygiene hypothesis', which proposes that exposure to infections in early childhood can modify the immune system and protect the child from allergies later in life. The World ...

After a spinal cord injury a number of factors impede the regeneration of nerve cells. Two of the most important of these factors are the destabilization of the cytoskeleton and the development of scar tissue. While the former prevents regrowth of cells, the latter creates a barrier for severed nerve cells. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried and their colleagues from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and University of Miami in the United States, and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, have now shown that the cancer drug Taxol reduces ...

Plants are attacked by a multitude of insects and mammals. As defense against these herbivores they developed complex defense mechanisms over the course of evolution: spines, thorns, leaf hairs and a number of toxic chemical substances. For decades it has been controversially discussed whether the production of defense traits incurs costs to the plants. Now, using a new method the ecologists and plant biologists of the University of Zürich together with their American colleagues demonstrate these costs accurately in a Proceedings of the Royal Society article. For their ...

DETROIT – Light, or photodynamic, therapy can help preserve the voice and vocal cord function for patients with early stage laryngeal (voice box) cancer, according to a study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. "Photodynamic therapy is an effective treatment for early laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas, offering patients a less invasive option with fewer side effects than other therapies, while preserving the voice," says study co-author Vanessa G. Schweitzer, FACS, M.D., a senior staff physician in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford. ...

"Fathers transmit their smoking habits to a statistically significant level to their sons, and the same is true of mothers and daughters. However, if a mother smokes it does not seem to impact on the probability of her son smoking, and similarly a father that smokes does not affect his daughter", Loureiro, a researcher at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), in Spain, and co-author of the study, tells SINC. The research, which has been published in the journal Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, is based on information from the British Household ...

Participating in community service activities and helping others is not just good for the soul; it has a healing effect that helps alcoholics and other addicts become and stay sober, a researcher from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine reports. In a review article published in the Volume 29 issue of Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, Maria E. Pagano, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, sheds light on the role of helping in addiction recovery, using the program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) as a prime example. She cites a growing ...