The state of Florida has made it significantly more difficult for plaintiffs to prevail in slip-and-fall cases. If you or a member of your family has suffered an injury, contact a slip and fall attorney for an evaluation of the facts of the case. The Old Law Compared to the New Law The old premises liability law simply required plaintiffs to prove that an accident had taken place. The new law, which went into effect on July 1, requires plaintiffs to prove that a defendant knew of the conditions that resulted in the accident. Plaintiffs have another avenue to ...

As everyone knows, divorces can often be contentious. Add children to the mix, and it can heighten the animosity, as both parents strive to do what they feel is best for the children. Sometimes these efforts boil over into accusations that the other parent is "bad" in some way -- eventually causing the child to share one parent's dislike for the other. In extreme cases, children have become unfairly estranged from one of their parents as a result. Over the past 30 years, a name has emerged for this sort of situation -- parental alienation syndrome. Those who ...

This release is available in Spanish. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agronomist Greg McMaster has developed computer software that tells farmers when to spray pesticides. McMaster works at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Agricultural Systems Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo. ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. The software, called "PhenologyMMS (Modular Modeling System)," predicts the timing of plant growth stages so Central Great Plains farmers and ranchers can know how their crop is progressing and when to apply pesticides, ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- At first glance, a diagram of the complex network of genes that regulate cellular metabolism might seem hopelessly complex, and efforts to control such a system futile. However, an MIT researcher has come up with a new computational model that can analyze any type of complex network — biological, social or electronic — and reveal the critical points that can be used to control the entire system. Potential applications of this work, which appears as the cover story in the May 12 issue of Nature, include reprogramming adult cells and identifying new ...

If you've never been in a car accident count perhaps you should count yourself lucky. Motor vehicle accident statistics suggest that one in four people will be involved in a car accident at least once during their lifetimes. If you are one of those four people already, you know the inconvenience that even a minor fender-bender can bring. Between police reports, conversations with insurance companies, body shop estimates and medical bills, being involved in a car accident is not a simple or cheap matter. And expenses stemming from car accidents are not just limited to ...

This release is available in German. Neural stem cells can do a lot, but not everything. For example, brain and spinal cord cells are not usually generated by neural stem cells of the peripheral nervous system, and it is not possible to produce cells of the peripheral nervous system from the stem cells of the brain. However, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded in producing central nervous system cells from neural stem cells of the peripheral ...

On January 18, 2011, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a rule establishing procedures for handling nuclear and environmental whistleblower retaliation complaints. This rule aligns retaliation complaints under the Energy Reorganization Act (ERA) of 1974 and the six environmental statutes with other OSHA whistleblower provisions. The rule allows employees to file oral or written complaints in English and other languages, making complaint filing more accessible to all employees. The ERA provision serves to protect employees who are retaliated ...

Writing in the scientific journal Nature, scientists have called for increased discussion of independent monitoring of deep-sea hydrocarbon industry activity with the aim of obtaining a better understanding of its ecological impact. The hydrocarbon industry is increasingly searching for hydrocarbon resources at much greater depths and developing drilling technology to exploit them. However, drilling the seafloor at great depths is technically very challenging and carries with it poorly known risks. "The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year and ...

Satellite tracking of olive ridley sea turtles off the coast of Central Africa has revealed that existing protected areas may be inadequate to safeguard turtles from fishing nets, according to scientists with the University of California-Santa Cruz, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter, and others. Scientists involved in the study recommended the extension of an international marine park that spans the waters of Gabon and the Republic of Congo and better international cooperation to manage this threatened species. The study was published May 11 ...

One of the most important persons in your life takes his or her most prominent role after your death. The personal representative of your estate will settle your affairs for you after you are gone. He or she -- or it, if you choose a bank or trust company to act for you -- will have the responsibility to see that the wishes you express in your will are carried out for the benefit of your beneficiaries. In simple terms, your will is the legal document that gives you the opportunity to direct how the most important parts of your life will be wrapped up upon your demise. ...

For the first time, in 2007, a new law allowed true no-fault divorce for couples with irreconcilable differences in New Jersey. Understanding the provisions of the state's no-fault divorce law and how marital property is divided among former spouses is essential for people undergoing or considering divorce in New Jersey. New Jersey No-Fault Divorce Under previous New Jersey law, a complaint for divorce had to state a specific ground for dissolving a marriage, such as extreme cruelty or separation. To obtain a divorce, one spouse had to allege that the other spouse ...

When they dive together, sperm whales make patterns of clicks to each other known as "codas". Recent findings suggest that, not only do different codas mean different things, but that whales can also tell which member of their community is speaking based on the sound properties of the codas. Just as we can tell our friends apart by the sounds of their voices and the way they pronounce their words, different sperm whales make the same pattern of clicks, but with different accents. Caribbean and Pacific whales have different repertoires of codas, like a regional dialect, ...

Every year, between 3000 and 3500 children are physically abused in Germany. Many more, some 12,000 to 13,000, suffer sexual abuse. These are the figures from official criminal statistics, but in fact a high proportion of unreported cases is assumed for both offenses. The latest edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International contains an article in which Winfried Häuser of the Technical University of Munich and his co-authors present the findings of their representative survey of a sample of the German population, conducted with the goal of quantifying the true dimensions ...

In 2003, Texas implemented the Texas Driver Responsibility Program. The Texas legislature thought the program would be an optimal way to combat problems like drunk-driving accidents, and budget shortfalls. However, critics say the program has been a failure and are now urging the legislature to repeal the program. What is the Texas Driver Responsibility Program? The Texas Driver Responsibility Program requires drivers who accumulate points on their driver's license for certain traffic citations or who are convicted of certain traffic offenses to pay a fine known ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Rising salinity in the primary source for desalinated tap water in North Carolina's Outer Banks has been traced to fossil seawater, not – as some have feared – to recent seawater intrusion. This means the saline groundwater in the Yorktown aquifer can remain a valuable source of desalination for decades to come, without Dare County communities having to switch to the much more costly alternative of desalinating seawater, says Duke University researcher Avner Vengosh. Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke's Nicholas School of the ...

A dollar is a dollar is a dollar, so goes the economic theory of fungibility. But do people really act that way? In a new working paper, Brown University economist Justine Hastings and Jesse Shapiro of Chicago Booth School of Business find striking evidence that basic consumer choice behavior violates this bedrock theory. "Fungibility is an important assumption in many economic models, but we have a lot of laboratory evidence suggesting that people don't, in fact, treat a dollar as a dollar," said Hastings, associate professor of economics. "People instead try to manage ...

The Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR21) 49 U.S. C. Section 42121 is a federal law that provides retaliation protections for employees of commercial air carriers and their contractors or subcontractors, who report alleged violations of federal laws related to aviation safety. AIR21 provides that no air carrier or contractor or subcontractor of an air carrier may discharge an employee or otherwise discriminate against an employee with respect to compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment, because he or she provided ...

Men and women infected with HIV reduced the risk of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners by taking oral antiretroviral medicines when their immune systems were relatively healthy, according to findings from a large-scale clinical study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The clinical trial, known as HPTN 052, was slated to end in 2015 but the findings are being released early as the result of a scheduled interim review of the study data by an independent data and safety ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC — A research study led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has made a major discovery in the effort to halt the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The study results show that early initiation of antiretroviral treatment in people infected with HIV prevents them from transmitting the virus to their partners. The study, known as HPTN 052, was designed to evaluate whether antiretroviral drugs can prevent sexual transmission of HIV infection among couples in which one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not. The results are ...

South Carolina drunk driving charges are a serious matter. In addition to a criminal record, motorists charged with and convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) face up to a month in jail and nearly $1,000 in fines. And those are just the criminal consequences, because a DUI record will also result in higher insurance rates, license suspension of up to six months and notoriety within an offender's community and at work. But like any other criminal justice process, drivers accused of DUI or driving with an unlawful alcohol concentration (DUAC) are entitled to due ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. –A University of Missouri researcher has found that stress related to pregnancy uniquely affects the health of expectant fathers, which in turn, influences the health of expectant mothers and their infants. Health services should incorporate counseling and assessments for men and women to reduce stressors and promote positive pregnancy outcomes, says ManSoo Yu, assistant professor in MU's Public Health Program. Mental distress in pregnant women – caused by anxiety, lack of social support or low self-esteem – is associated with poor infant health. The importance ...

A law inspired by the 2008 death of 33-year-old Ashley McIntosh now requires that Virginia police vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances responding to emergency calls not only have their so-called "blue lights" flashing but that they also activate their sirens and use their horns while crossing intersections. McIntosh was fatally injured by a Fairfax County officer on February 12, 2008 when Perry's police cruiser went through a red light -- with emergency lights flashing but without the siren turned on -- along U.S. Route 1 in Hybla Valley and struck McIntosh's ...

PASADENA, Calif.—Stronger than steel or titanium—and just as tough—metallic glass is an ideal material for everything from cell-phone cases to aircraft parts. Now, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a new technique that allows them to make metallic-glass parts utilizing the same inexpensive processes used to produce plastic parts. With this new method, they can heat a piece of metallic glass at a rate of a million degrees per second and then mold it into any shape in just a few milliseconds. "We've redefined how you process ...

Legislation has been introduced that would require suspects charged with felonies and some misdemeanors to be swabbed for DNA samples in Pennsylvania. The bill is expected to move rapidly through the legislative process. Prosecutors favor the move as making it easier to obtain convictions. The present law limits DNA samples to those convicted or where permitted by a search warrant. The Pittsburg Tribune-Review quotes Sgt. Joe Gannon, from the Pittsburg police sex assault squad, and he explained that as evidence, it could go either way, "I think it's a good ...

Interactive teaching methods significantly improved attendance and doubled both engagement and learning in a large physics class, according to a University of British Columbia study published today in Science. Led by Louis Deslauriers, a post-doctoral researcher at UBC's Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI), the study compared the amount of learning students experienced when taught – in three hours over one week – by traditional lecture and by using interactive activities based on research in cognitive psychology and physics education. The research team ...