Windmill-task as a New Quantitative and Objective Assessment for Mirror Movements in Unilateral Cerebral Palsy: A Pilot Study.

Objective: To introduce the Windmill-task, a new objective assessment tool to quantify the presence of mirror movements (MMs) in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP), which are typically assessed with the observation-based Woods and Teuber scale (W&T).

Design: Prospective, observational, cohort pilot study.

Setting: Children's hospital.

A dynamic leaf gas-exchange strategy is conserved in woody plants under changing ambient CO2 : evidence from carbon isotope discrimination in paleo and CO2 enrichment studies.

Rising atmospheric [CO2 ], ca , is expected to affect stomatal regulation of leaf gas-exchange of woody plants, thus influencing energy fluxes as well as carbon (C), water, and nutrient cycling of forests. Researchers have proposed various strategies for stomatal regulation of leaf gas-exchange that include maintaining a constant leaf internal [CO2 ], ci , a constant drawdown in CO2 (ca  - ci ), and a constant ci /ca . These strategies can result in drastically different consequences for leaf gas-exchange.

The establishment of genetically engineered canola populations in the U.S.

Concerns regarding the commercial release of genetically engineered (GE) crops include naturalization, introgression to sexually compatible relatives and the transfer of beneficial traits to native and weedy species through hybridization. To date there have been few documented reports of escape leading some researchers to question the environmental risks of biotech products. In this study we conducted a systematic roadside survey of canola (Brassica napus) populations growing outside of cultivation in North Dakota, USA, the dominant canola growing region in the U.

Changing pollen types/concentrations/distribution in the United States: fact or fiction?

The buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has resulted in global climate change that is having a significant effect on many allergenic plants through increases in plant productivity and pollen allergenicity and shifts in plant phenology. Based on experimental studies, increased atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have directly increased plant productivity. This has affected the total amount of pollen produced in some species.

Medicare finances: findings of the 2008 Trustees Report.

Each year Medicare's Board of Trustees issues a report that describes the financial condition of the Medicare program in the near term and over the next 75 years. Similar to recent trustees reports, the 2008 report projects that Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be depleted in 2019, at which time scheduled income will cover 78 percent of expenditures. Looking at these projections, some observers contend that Medicare must be fundamentally restructured in order to put the program--and the overall federal budget--on a sound fiscal course.