Preliminary results indicate that abuse of the elderly occurs 25 times more often than officially reported, according to the New York State Elder Abuse Prevalence Study of November 16, 2010. Abuse occurs at a rate of 76 per 1,000 State residents - physical, psychological, financial. Abuse of non-financial mistreatment occurs at the rate of 46.2 per 1,000 State residents. The highest rate is major financial exploitation (theft of money or property; use of items without permission; impersonation to get access; force or deception to get items such as money, bankcards, ...

A series of blog entries in the New York Times discuss drunk-driving law and what the law generally seeks to prevent--fewer alcohol-related injuries and deaths--but how we go about achieving it without severely overstepping constitutional boundaries to due process is a major challenge. The law against drunk driving in many states has become quite oppressive (leading some to question the hardship placed on a first-time offender who did not cause an accident and whose blood-alcohol content is not extremely high). On the other hand, the tragic circumstances of any serious ...

Today's policies on crime and punishment in America can largely be attributed to sentencing guidelines -- a legal principle that takes away some of the discretion that judges have in sentencing those convicted of crimes. Known as presumptive minimums, mandatory minimums, or in some cases, voluntary guidelines and benchmarks, these structures are formal procedures for judges to use in determining a specific punishment for a criminal offense. History of Sentencing Guidelines in the United States Most sentencing policies were borne from the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, ...

Standard Life has launched the Active Money Personal Pension (AMPP) online, available via the Standard Life website. The AMPP combines an easy purchase process with total flexibility and a broad range of investment funds with the benefits of tax-relief, where for every GBP80 the customer invests, the tax man tops up with a further GBP20. Available from GBP80 a month* or a single payment of GBP800, AMPP has been designed to attract new customers who have to date not used pensions as a way of planning for the future. Mark Till, director, Standard Life Direct, commented: ...

House of Fraser, the premium department store, has launched the new 'Untold' and 'Therapy' lingerie collections. House of Fraser has launched the eagerly anticipated lingerie collections from 'Untold' and 'Therapy' online, allowing customers to cheer themselves up in the cold weather with a new underwear wardrobe. Shoppers can now feel great underneath all the woolly layers this season, with a touch of sexy lace lingerie from 'Untold' or a playful print from 'Therapy'. House of Fraser shoppers can purchase the new collections online where they will also find a variety ...

Debenhams, a leading department store, has reported that, even though they are often the last people to be associated with the phrase "fashion icon", frumpy and practically dressed Grannies across the nation are now inspiring the season's latest dress code on British streets. The fashion set saw granny style cardigans, tweed mid-length skirts and flesh coloured tights walk down the catwalks of Paris, New York, London and Milan and the trends have now filtered down to the high street. The look has been embraced by fashion icons and 'now' girls Alexa Cheung, Agyness ...

Ideasbynet, business gifts and promotional products provider, has announced its plans for 2011 following recent movements in the promotional gifts market. Ideasbynet has seen significant increases in demand for fundraising promotional gifts during the second half of 2010, which have brought their number of enquires almost to the level of its business marketing products. With the prospect of Government cuts being rife throughout 2011, Ideasbynet is expecting that there will be plenty of small organisations in need of additional funding from as many avenues as possible. ...

Under the administration of president George W. Bush it was demonstrated the insensitivity and lack of respect for the working class of this nation, but with his attitude and bad administration, he continuously demonstrated that he comes from a wealthy family and he only cared about his personal agenda and forgot to take care of the nation's interests. On the other hand, President Obama, coming from modest and humble roots, should not have forgotten the undeniable necessities of the American people. He and his family, who know first hand the basic necessities of every ...

DailyLibertarian.com's recent server upgrade and its eponymous domain change, did not affect traffic as predicted. In fact, in the 12 days from the domain change to the end of January resulted in over 30,000 page views. "It is because of our readers and their continued interest which makes our hard work for the website and articles worthwhile," states Thomas Brophy, Editor of Daily Libertarian, "we want to continue to provide our readers with meaningful articles, which is why we have expanded to include a Special Report series." The 'Special Report' series will cover ...

As the travel industry rebounds from a tight economy, services provided by professional medical teams such as Rescue Nurse International are poised for progress. Insurance and travel assistance companies have begun to rely more heavily on nursing services that use commercial airlines to transport ill or injured patients home from a vacation, business trip, semester abroad and even expatriates. Colorado-based Rescue Nurse International continues to expand their footprint nationally with a network of licensed nurses coast to coast, ready to respond at a moment's notice. "Accompanying ...

Spring break gives families the perfect opportunity to relax and unwind from hectic day-to-day schedules. Cherry Valley Lodge and CoCo Key Water Resort have come up with multiple packages that are suited to meet any families needs, especially when it comes to budget. Cherry Valley Lodge encourages families to slash into spring now and book during the Early Parrot Sale, February 1-18, 2011 and receive up to 20% off. Guests can visit www.cocokeywaterresort.com or call (800) 788-8008 to book today and save on some of the spectacular packages including: Unplug & Reconnect ...

The Dallas Police Department will get some surveillance assistance monitoring Super Bowl XLV parties and activities in and around Dallas this weekend. Dallas-based TerraHawk, LLC , at the request of Dallas Police, will provide their M.U.S.T. unit, outfitted with the latest thermal and digital recording devices, to monitor and patrol various activities and parties slated for the downtown area. Designed for ease of deployment during crowd control or emergency situations, TerraHawk's M.U.S.T. (mobile utility surveillance tower) allows occupants a 360 degree view of crowds ...

Banc De Binary (www.bbinary.com) is riding high, with a company value that has nearly tripled within the past year. As the largest binary options investment house prepares to announce its new platform additions later this month we asked two analysts to weigh in on whether the company can make good on the market's enthusiastic expectations. Here's what they had to say: Greg Hopkins, Economist, WebValue Experts: "Banc De Binary has taken the online trading field past its given potential. When we sat with the company's board about a year ago, we figured it would eat away ...

In typical plasmonic devices, electromagnetic waves crowd into tiny metal structures, concentrating energy into nanoscale dimensions. Due to coupling of electronics and photonics in these metal nanostructures, plasmonic devices could be harnessed for high-speed data transmission or ultrafast detector arrays. However, studying plasmonic fields in nanoscale devices presents a real roadblock for scientists, as examining these structures inherently alters their behavior. "Whether you use a laser or a light bulb, the wavelength of light is still too large to study plasmonic ...

University of British Columbia researchers estimate that fisheries catches in the Arctic totaled 950,000 tonnes from 1950 to 2006, almost 75 times the amount reported to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) during this period. Led by Prof. Daniel Pauly, the research team from UBC's Fisheries Centre and Dept. of Earth and Ocean Sciences reconstructed fisheries catch data from various sources – including limited governmental reports and anthropological records of indigenous population activities – for FAO's Fisheries Statistical Area 18, which covers ...

In our not-so-distant evolutionary past, stress often meant imminent danger, and the risk of blood loss, so part of our body's stress response is to stock-pile blood-clotting factors. Scientists in the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU), a collaboration between the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the University of Heidelberg Medical Centre, have discovered how stressed cells boost the production of the key blood-clotting factor, thrombin. Their work, published today in Molecular Cell, shows how cancer cells may be taking ...

This week, the highly-respected US Academy of Sciences journal (PNAS) published an article describing how the first line of defence of the human immune system distinguishes between microbes and the body's own structures. The basis of this recognition mechanism has been unclear since the key protein components were discovered over 30 years ago – and has now finally been cracked by a collaboration between high-level research groups at the University of Helsinki, Finland. When a microbe has infected us, the first defence mechanism that attacks it is a protein-based marking ...

A systematic review carried out by a team at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry has analysed existing studies and concluded that there are benefits to mental and physical well-being from taking exercise in the natural environment. Their findings are published in the leading research journal Environmental Science and Technology today, 4th February 2011. The research team, supported by the NIHR Peninsula Collaboration in Leadership for Applied Health Research and Care (PenCLAHRC, part of the NIHR family of health and research initiatives) in collaboration with ...

In Spain it is relatively common to come across petrol stations surrounded by houses, particularly in urban areas. Researchers from the University of Murcia (UM) have studied the effects of contamination at petrol stations that is potentially harmful to health, which can be noted in buildings less than 100 metres from the service stations. "Some airborne organic compounds – such as benzene, which increases the risk of cancer – have been recorded at petrol stations at levels above the average levels for urban areas where traffic is the primary source of emission", Marta ...

The link between deficits of omega-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (AGPO-3) and the onset of depressive disorders is not new in the medical field. However, what has not been known until now is the brain mechanism by which diet can condition mental health to a certain extent. Research undertaken by scientists in Bordeaux (France) and at the Faculty of Medicine and Odontology of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and published in Nature Neuroscience, provides new clues to understanding this phenomenon. The name of the research work, 'Omega-3 nutritional deficiencies ...

Physicists, led by a researcher at the University of Warwick, studying new images of clouds of material exploding from the Sun have spotted instabilities forming in that exploding cloud that are similar to those seen in clouds in Earth's atmosphere. These results could greatly assist physicists trying to understand and predict our Solar System's "weather". The researchers, led by of the Centre for Fusion Space and Astrophysics, at the University of Warwick's Department of Physics, made their discovery when examining new images of clouds of material exploding from ...

Scientists continuing to investigate a 50 year mystery have discovered another vital clue that could help pave the way for improved medicines. The results feature in a special edition of Nature celebrating the International Year of Chemistry. The findings reveal an important insight into the way carbohydrates (sugars) bond and this will influence the way drugs are designed in the future. Using specialist laser equipment from the EPSRC-funded Laser Loan Pool managed by STFC's Central Laser Facility, Professors John Simons and Ben Davis together with co-workers from the ...

This declining trend is blamed on a failure of innovative drive in the industry, failure of the UK to support basic research, failure of venture capital to invest in early stage research, or failure of the Health Service to provide smart procurement. A research centre funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) shows that radical reform of the drugs industry regulatory system must be an important part of the solution to ensure a productive and profitable pharmaceutical sector, both globally and in the UK. Researchers from the ESRC's Innogen centre have ...

DURHAM, N.H. – From an environmental perspective, Daphnia pulex -- the waterflea – is the best-studied organism on the planet. Scientists know how this species responds to pollution, predators, day and night, making it an important model for ecological and evolutionary research. Its genome, however, remained elusive, limiting understanding of how the environment and genes interact. Until now. An international team of researchers comprising the Daphnia Genomics Consortium, including four from the University of New Hampshire's Hubbard Center for Genome Studies, has described ...

Ms. K. is vision-impaired and can't get around very well any more. Still, the 80-year-old, who lives alone, has no intention whatsoever of moving to a retirement home. Most elderly people think the same way. They want to stay in their accustomed surroundings as long as possible, where they can lead an autonomous life. What many fail to realize is that they are risking their health in the process. Cardiovascular problems are more frequent among the elderly, and the risk of falling is more prevalent: one person in three above the age of 65 falls once a year; among those over ...