The numbers of claims for medical mishap has increased dramatically in recent years and the total amount paid annually to successful claimants has increased at least tenfold in the last fifteen years. No-one will dispute that high standards of care should be encouraged and basic minima enforced, but the present situation ultimately benefits only the lawyers. It has been projected that, if the p...

A series of three experiments was conducted with the aim of determining the processing nature of the fractal rotation stimulus introduced by C. P. Benton, J. M. O'Brien, and W. Curran (2007). This stimulus has been proposed to be invisible to first-order sensitive mechanisms considering it is drift-balanced. Rather, motion perception would require the analysis of spatial structure (orientation)...

Two simple methods of using sophisticated statistical techniques to analyse intralaboratory quality control data are described. One method uses a plastic grid to assess the cumulative sum (cusum) graph. An equivalent procedure, which may be carried out by a laboratory computer, gives automated on-line quality control of the Coulter S blood counter. The possible development of simple apparatus t...

Evidence suggests that sensitivity to coherent motion (CM) is related to reading, but its role in the etiology of developmental dyslexia remains unclear. In this longitudinal study, CM sensitivity was measured in 31 children at family risk for dyslexia and 31 low-risk controls. Children, diagnosed with dyslexia in third grade (mean age=8 years 3 months), demonstrated reduced CM sensitivity in k...

The setting up of the Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury, its terms of reference and report are discussed. The main recommendations are detailed with brief consideration of their possible impact. The proposals are assessed and the philosophy and principles behind the reform, explicit or implicit in the Report, are considered. Finally, the extent to which th...

Rugby football continues to grow in popularity internation- ally and within the United States. In 1995, rugby union, one form of rugby, turned from amateur to professional through- out Europe, increasing the potential for monetary reward, which, in turn, secondary to higher levels of play, increased the risk of injury. With this increased higher interest and the increasing number of inexperienc...