Reply from Mr Kennedy

Mr Kennedy and consumerism.

The issues raised by Ian Kennedy in the course of his 1980 Reith Lectures on medical ethics are also of concern to Great Britain's Patients Association. Ackroyd, as Chairman of the Association, does not however share Kennedy's view that the consumerism model for regulating abuses is appropriate to medical care. She would prefer to have the Health Service Commissioner authorized to investigate...

Reply to Kennedy et al.: Katrina storm records in tide gauges.

We appreciate the opportunity to discuss our definition of events of Katrina magnitude. Kennedy et al. (1) argue that our definition of Katrina magnitude events (2) is too low because we do not use any tide gauge data in the immediate proximity of New Orleans and the region of absolute maximal surge height. We note that hurricane best track records (3) for Katrina magnitude events show a ~20-y ...

Alpha Rhythm of the Eec and Mechanical Properties of Brain: a Reply to Kennedy

A recent article by Kennedy (1959) in this journal describes a physical model which produces rhythmic electrical changes resembling alpha waves in the electroencephalogram (EEG). The model is a gelatinous mass contained in a bowl and driven by a mechanical pulse. A bimetallic strip inside the bowl acts as a single dipole which electrochemically activates the gel. Electrodes on the outer surface...

Reply from

In his recent TREE news & comment, Watkinson1 drew attention to the role of soil microorganisms in plant population dynamics. In particular, he reported on the dynamical framework for the inter-relations between the composition of plant and soil communities, proposed last year by Bever et al.2 It is worth adding allelopathic interactions to this picture. Allelopathy has been defined by Rice3 as...

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