Consider a slinky that is held at one end while the rest of it is allowed to hang freely. If the slinky is released, then as it falls due to gravity it also shrinks in extent due to the contracting force in the slinky itself. A few years ago it was discovered that the net effect of these two changes exactly counteract each other at the bottom extent of the slinky and therefore the bottom of the...

The brain of a bird that is singing appears to be able to block out certain signals and prevent them from influencing brain activity.

BACKGROUND Fear of falling (FOF) is commonly experienced in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). It is a predictor of recurrent falls, a barrier to physical exercise, and negatively associated with health-related quality of life. A variety of rating scales exist that assess different aspects of FOF but comprehensive head-to-head comparisons of their psychometric properties in people with PD ar...

OBJECTIVE To quantify pediatric injuries and deaths that result from toppled television sets. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of incident files compiled by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) data systems and The Children's Hospital of Alabama (TCHA) inpatient medical records. SETTING United States, January 1990-June 1997. TCHA, May 1995-October 1997. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Morb...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the factors influencing the quiet standing balance of patients with incomplete cervical spinal cord injuries. Also to find the correlations between posturographic parameters and clinical balance tests as well as to find the correlation between posturographic parameters and functional independence. METHOD We conducted a tetra-ataxiometric posturography, lower extremity...

OBJECTIVE To gain a deeper understanding of the content of 4 fear of falling (FOF) rating scales by linking them to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). DESIGN Linking study according to the ICF linking rules. SETTING Not applicable. PATIENTS Not applicable. METHODS The rating scales were the Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I), the Swedis...