Prevalence of coma-recovery scale-revised signs of consciousness in patients in minimally conscious state.

Different behavioural signs of consciousness can distinguish patients with an unresponsive wakefulness syndrome from patients in minimally conscious state (MCS). The Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) is the most sensitive scale to differentiate the different altered states of consciousness and eleven items detect the MCS. The aim of this study is to document the prevalence of these items.

Atomic-scale surface roughness of rutile and implications for organic molecule adsorption.

Crystal surfaces provide physical interfaces between the geosphere and biosphere. It follows that the arrangement of atoms at the surfaces of crystals profoundly influences biological components at many levels, from cells through biopolymers to single organic molecules. Many studies have focused on the crystal-molecule interface in water using large, flat single crystals.

Educational Achievement Gaps between Immigrant and Native Students in Two "New Immigration Countries": Italy and Spain in comparison.

We use PISA 2009 data to determine how immigrant children in Italy and Spain compare with native students in reading and mathematics skills. Drawing on the vast empirical literature in traditional immigration countries, we test the extent to which the most well-established patterns and hypotheses of immigrant/native educational achievement gaps also apply to these new immigration countries. Findings show that both first- and second-generation immigrant students underperform natives in both countries.

Adsorption and surface complexation study of L-DOPA on Rutile (α-TiO₂) in NaCl solutions.

Dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) and similar molecules are of considerable interest in studies of bioadhesion to minerals, solar cells involving titanium dioxide, and biomedical imaging. However, the extent and mechanisms of DOPA adsorption on oxides in salt solutions are unknown. We report measurements of DOPA adsorption on well-characterized rutile (α-TiO₂) particles over a range of pH, ionic strength, and surface coverage as well as a surface complexation model analysis establishing the stoichiometry, model surface speciation, and thermodynamic equilibrium constants, which permits predictions in more complex systems.

Anastomosis formation and nuclear and protoplasmic exchange in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

We observed anastomosis between hyphae originating from the same spore and from different spores of the same isolate of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomus mosseae, Glomus caledonium, and Glomus intraradices. The percentage of contacts leading to anastomosis ranged from 35 to 69% in hyphae from the same germling and from 34 to 90% in hyphae from different germlings. The number of anastomoses ranged from 0.