Parkinsons Disease Essays - Neuroscience, Biology, Brain

Parkinson's Disease : Parkinson's disease affects the nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine. Parkinson's disease symptoms include muscle rigidity ,tremors , and changes in speech and gait. After diagnosis, treatments can help relieve symptoms. Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 3 :Dopamine levels in normal and a pakinson's affected neuron Stem cell therapy in parkinson's disease : Doctors firstly isolated adult stem cells from the patient's brain, they were then cultured in vitro and encouraged to turn into dopamine-producing neurons. As soon as tests showed that the cells were producing dopamine they were then re-injected into the man's brain. After the transplant, the man's condition was seen to improve and he experienced a reduction in the trembling and muscle rigidity associated with the disease. Brain scans taken 3-months after the transplant revealed that dopamine production had increased by 58%, however it later dropped but the Parkinson's symptoms did not return. The study is the first human study to show that stem cell transplants can help to treat Parkinson's. The use of fetal-derived neural stem cells has shown significant promise in rodent models of Parkinson's disease, and the potential for tumorigenicity appears to be minimal. The authors report that undifferentiated human neural stem cells ( hNSCs ) transplanted into severely Parkinsonian 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated primates could survive, migrate, and induce behavioral recovery of Parkinsonian symptoms, which were directly related to reduced dopamine levels in the nigrostriatal system ( 5 ) . Working with these cells, the researchers created dopamine neurons deficient in DJ-1, a gene mutated in an inherited form of Parkinson's. They report that DJ-1-deficient cells -- and especially DJ-1-deficient dopamine neurons -- display heightened sensitivity to oxidative stress, caused by products of oxygen metabolism that react with and damage cellular components like proteins and DNA. In a second paper, they link DJ-1 dysfunct ion to the aggregation of alpha- synuclein , a hallmark of Parkinson's neuropathology. ( 6 , HYPERLINK "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3068820/" \l "b7-ijhs-3-2-0227" 7 ) In summary most of studies using aborted human embryonic tissue indicate that: Clinical benefit does occur; however, the benefit is not marked and there is a delay of many months before the clinical change. Postmortem examinations show that tissue grafts do survive and innervate the striatum. PET scans show that there is an increase in dopamine uptake after transplantation. Follow up studies show that long term benefit does occur with transplantation . ( 8 )

Elderly Abuse

Elderly Abuse Free Online Research Papers Physical elder abuse is non-accidental use of force against an elderly person that results in physical pain, injury, or impairment. Such abuse includes not only physical assaults such as hitting or shoving but the inappropriate use of drugs, restraints, or confinement. In emotional or psychological senior abuse, people speak to or treat elderly persons in ways that cause emotional pain or distress. Verbal forms of emotional elder abuse include intimidation through yelling or threats humiliation and ridicule habitual blaming or scapegoating. Nonverbal psychological elder abuse can take the form of ignoring the elderly person isolating an elder from friends or activities terrorizing or menacing the elderly person Sexual elder abuse is contact with an elderly person without the elder’s consent. Such contact can involve physical sex acts, but activities such as showing an elderly person pornographic material, forcing the person to watch sex acts, or forcing the elder to undress are also considered sexual elder abuse Elder neglect, failure to fulfill a caretaking obligation, constitutes more than half of all reported cases of elder abuse. It can be active (intentional) or passive (unintentional, based on factors such as ignorance or denial that a n elderly charge needs as much care as he or she does). This involves unauthorized use of an elderly person’s funds or property, either by a caregiver or an outside scam artist misuse an elder’s personal checks, credit cards, or accounts steal cash, income checks, or household goods forge the elder’s signature engage in identity theft. Elder abuse is one of the most disturbing and rapidly growing areas of crime in the United States. First recognized by Congress in hearings some 25 years ago, it remains a national disgrace and hidden phenomenon in our communities. While variously defined, elder abuse can encompass arrange of destructive behaviors directed at older adults including acts of commission, considered to be abuse, and acts of omission, categorized as neglect. Abuse and neglect may be intentional or unintentional, financial or material exploitation, and self-neglect (National Center for Elder Abuse, 2003; Hamilton, 2003). All threaten the health and welfare of an older person. The boxes below provide expansion on the definitions of abuse, neglect, and exploitation (Maine DHHS/OES, 2003). It is estimated that as many as 5 million persons 65 and older are abused in the United States annually. Approximately 84% of all cases of abuse are never reported (Legal Services for the Elderly, 2001). Maine, the nation’s oldest state in median age and second most rural state, has a rate of elder abuse estimated to be above the national average (Hamilton, 2003; Maine DHHS/OES, 2006). In addition, Maine’s elderly suicide rate is among the highest in the United States (Associated Press, 2002). In Maine, it is estimated that only one of every 14 incidents of elder abuse is reported (Legal Services for the Elderly, 2001). This represents an estimated total of approximately 14,000 victims annually, the vast majority of whom are unknown to the state’s health and welfare system and therefore do not benefit from the services available to address elder abuse, neglect, and interpersonal violence (Hamilton, 2003; Maine DHHS/OES, 2006). The majority of cases of elder abus e go unreported making it a hidden problem within the communities that we live in. There are many reasons why abuse goes undetected. Often the abuser is a family member and caregiver who is the sole lifeline for the dependent victim’s basic needs. Many older adults tolerate abuse rather than risk losing the close personal ties of the abusive family member who is most often a child or a spouse. Victims tend to minimize the seriousness of the abuse so as not to place the abuser at risk, or fearing institutionalization, to jeopardize their living arrangement. There is a common belief that these types of issues are â€Å"family matters† and should be handled within the family itself. However, because the abuser is often times a member of the family, there is a tendency for other family members to cover up the situation. Also, there is a tendency for the victim to blame him or herself for the abuse or want to protect the abuser from â€Å"getting in trouble.† There has been some progress over the last few decades in raising public awareness of the epidemic of elder abuse in America. There have been research studies, demographic reports, as well as anecdotal studies focused on elder abuse. However, despite all of these steps forward, elder abuse can be considered to be where child abuse and domestic violence were 25 years ago (i.e., at the â€Å"tip of the iceberg† stage of overall public awareness). There are several reasons for this elder abuse is not clearly defined, funding for elder abuse intervention and preventio n is limited, and the public has not yet taken elder abuse into its vernacular (Solomon, 2006). In 1998 the Administration on Aging published its final report on The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study. This study advocated for a sentinel approach to elder abuse using the model developed by Westat for officially reporting child abuse (Administration on Aging, 1998). This approach is based on the assumption that reported cases of elder abuse represent only the â€Å"tip of the iceberg†, and that most cases are not reported to Elder homicide-suicides usually involve spouses or intimate partners who kill their partners and then commit suicide. These killings are often prompted by the physical decline, hospitalization or institutionalization of one of the individuals in the relationship. The events are often mistakenly assumed to be ‘double suicides’ or ‘mercy killings’, however, when the cases are looked at with closer scrutiny, it is usually revealed that one partner was not a willing participant. Many homicide-suicides appear to be motivated by the perpetrators’ need to control the other person. In fact, in 33% of such cases, there is a history of domestic violence (Cohen, 1998) Research Papers on Elderly AbuseThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Moral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyCapital PunishmentPETSTEL analysis of IndiaMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductTwilight of the UAW

Global Context Of Modern Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Global Context Of Modern Business - Essay Example Globalization is increasing the interdependence among the economies. However, the developing countries are enjoying increasing access to markets of developed economy that facilitates easy transfer of technology and capital movements but it is increasing the inequality among the global economies. The negative aspect of globalization is that instability or downturn in any major economies of the world results in the downturn of the global economy as a whole. This is because the domestic economic developments of countries determined not only by the domestic policies but also by international policies and economic situations. Thus in order to implement any developmental policies not only the domestic impact but also the global impact of that policy has to be considered (Balakrishnan, 2004). Moreover globalization may create more unemployment problems because of increasing firm closure and lower wages of the employed. This is because increasing competition often wipes out the small firms t hat are incapable to compete and secondly more use of modern and advanced technology in production adversely affects some companies manufacturing unimproved machineries (Moffatt, 2011). There is coexistence of both positive and negative impacts in every aspects and globalization is no exception. Thus to study modern business in the global context the most important issue that need to be considered is the impact of the global financial crisis which triggered the global economy during 2007. Globalization has increased the financial movement across countries because of lucid monetary controls and regulations and thus financial globalization is associated with the financial crisis of 2007. The paper discusses the nature and impact of the crisis on the countries’ business environment. The Financial crisis – nature and impact The people of topical times are still living with the recollections of the Great Depression of the 30s. There has been no record of economic avalanche of same scale and duration till this date, but the recent global financial crisis is not less important. The economic recession of 2007 has already found its position in the records of American politics. It is less brutal than the great depression of 1929 but has thrown its shadows on worldwide politics and economy. The crisis of 2007 will be considered as a short follow-up to the 1929 depression. The government policies and concern have been held responsible once again for the financial crisis – â€Å"Americans have lost faith not only in the [Bush] administration, but in its economic philosophy: a new corporate welfarism masquerading behind free-market ideology; another version of trickle-down economics, where the hundreds of billions to Wall Street that caused the problem were supposed to somehow trickle down to help ordinary Americans. Trickle-down hasn’t been working well in America over the past eight years.† (Stiglitz, October 2008) The social, political and economic perils of the global financial crisis of 2007 will continue to persist for another few months. The American government and European Union have thrived for a united effort to counter the recession. It seems like a group action on the part of the national leaders will be more valuable in restoring the backbone. The world has altered a lot since the Second World War. The harmony among different nations and their joint effort to expand the world as a whole had come