BACKGROUND Estimating the prevalence of persistent vegetative state (PVS) following severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) and its change over time is important for the study of the disease. OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of PVS at six months after sTBI and its trend over the past four decades, and to explore the effect of demographic data, such as age and sex, on the prevalence of PVS. ...

This study identified statistically significant, and practically important, seasonal pheromone trap response dynamics of Euschistus conspersus (Uhler) in processing tomatoes in 12 fields over 5 years in California, USA. Commercial fields were monitored weekly using traps baited with Euschistus spp. pheromone and direct canopy shake samples. Regression analysis determined no significant relation...

Letters Best interests in persistent vegetative state SIR While I agree with several points raised in your recent editorial' on my paper, Applying best interests to persistent vegetative state-a principled distortion?,2 I must respond to a number of other issues which you raise. I agree unreservedly with your caveat that both doctors and judges must act within the law. My paper, however, sought...

For most of human history, there was no perceived problem in determining whether a person was alive or dead. If the person had stopped breathing and had no heartbeat, he was considered dead. During the twentieth century, however, techniques were developed that made it possible to resuscitate some people who had stopped breathing and whose heart had stopped beating. With the invention of mechani...

years of the North Karelia study the mortality from cardio-vascular disease in women aged 30 to 64 fell from 2 5 to 1-7 per 1000 person years compared with a fall from 7-7 to 6-3 in men. 19 Mortality from stroke fell in women by half, and this is likely to be sustained by the continuing fall in blood pressure .8 A 12 year follow up study in Gothenburg of 1462 women found that 13% of women at ba...

to make judgments about awareness or consciousness based on these results; however, it is clear that she not only perceived visual stimuli, but also processed them to recognise content that was not based on primary image attributes such as colour, brightness, size, or movement. Further studies may more closely correlate functional imaging with behavioural assessment, electrophysiological findin...

Aquatic plants convert mean kinetic energy into turbulent kinetic energy at the scale of the plant stems and branches. This energy transfer, linked to wake generation, affects vegetative drag and turbulence intensity. Drawing on this physical link, a model is developed to describe the drag, turbulence and diffusion for flow through emergent vegetation which for the first time captures the relev...

It is accepted in South African law that patients have the right to refuse medical treatment even if it may cause them to die, if they have the legal capacity to make such a decision. In English law the principle ‘extends to situations where the person, in anticipation of his ... entering into a condition such as PVS [persistent vegetative state], gives clear instructions that in such event he ...

The aims of the study were: (i) to compare leaf reflectance in visible (VIS) (400-700 nm), near-infrared (NIR) (740-1140 nm) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) (2000-2400 nm) spectral ranges measured monthly by a contact probe on a single leaf and a stack of five leaves (measurement setup (MS)) of two broadleaved tree species during the vegetative season; and (ii) to test if and how selected vegeta...

Deep karst depressions with a large volume of water due to a poor water drainage system (caused by a clay layer, etc.) and with steeply sloping sidewalls paludificate in a special way. Peat formation begins with dead vegetative material (leaves, etc.) floating on the water's surface in the center of the karst lake. The peat grows laterally from the center of the depression to its edges and the ...