M ost of the terms used for computer viruses arc metaphors: they have a largely medical origin, and are seductive if not literally sexy. The very real worries WC have about AIDS, for example, no doubt colour the way we talk about computer viruses. At the extreme, abstractly viruses arc clearly just algorithms, and like any other algorithm they arc good for some things and not good for others. T...

OBJECTIVES To determine the outcomes after first-ever stroke, including mortality, dependence, and recurrence. DESIGN Retrospective study on a prospectively collected cohort. SETTING Regional hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS A cohort of 755 patients presented to our hospital from 1996 to 1998 with their first-ever stroke. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Mortality and stroke recurrence rate at 30 day...

The aging population increases the demand of intensive care unit (ICU) treatments. However, the availability of ICU beds is limited. Thus, ICU admission of octogenarians is considered controversial. The population above 80 years is a very heterogeneous group though, and age alone might not be the best predictor. Aim of this study was to analyze resource consumption and outcome of octogenarians ...

Those of us who are deeply concerned about population and the environment — "econuts," we're called, — are accused of seeing herbicides in trees, pollution in running brooks, radiation in rocks, and overpopulation everywhere. There is merit in the accusation. I was in Calcutta when the cyclone struck East Bengal in November 1970. Early dispatches spoke of 15,000 dead, but the estimates rapidly ...

reproduce my paper criticised therein which appeared in the Ophthalmic Review, Vol. XXII, April, 1903. In the Ophthalmoscope for December 1904, in a brief notice of Major Smith's paper I came across the following paragraph, but though objecting to its inferences I decided to take 110 notice of it. "Smith is, therefore, of opinion (despite the views recently expressed by Power, Maynard and other...

In recent years, sequence-specific gene silencing has been an area of increasing focus, both because of its interesting biology and because of its power as an experimental tool. A growing understanding of one such phenomenon, RNA interference (RNAi), has provided clues that many homology-dependent gene-silencing mechanisms share a common trigger, double-stranded RNA. Recent findings that RNAi a...

Sir,?That almost diametrically opposite opinions as to the results of " couching" in India should be held by Majors Maynard and Smith is striking. The question at issue is an important one and we need accuracy. The former officer in a carefully worked out paper gives 46 per cent of good vision after an interval of five years, the latter does not quote figures but states that the vast majority o...

The scope and meaning of ‘accountability’ has been extended in a number of directions well beyond its core sense of being called to account for one’s actions. It has been applied to internal aspects of official behaviour, beyond the external focus implied by being called to account; to institutions that control official behaviour other than through calling officials to account; to means of maki...

the highest level ought to be based on sound information, research or expert advice. Further, once change has been implemented and new practices set up there needs to be ongoing assessment, monitoring and reflection on the relative merits of the situation. Depending on the findings it might be necessary to make further changes: sometimes these alterations may even result in a complete reversal ...