Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by rich heterogeneity in vocabulary knowledge and word knowledge that is not well accounted for by current cognitive theories. This study examines whether individual differences in vocabulary knowledge in ASD might be partly explained by a difficulty with consolidating newly learned spoken words and/or integrating them with existing knowledge. Nineteen boys with ASD and 19 typically developing (TD) boys matched on age and vocabulary knowledge showed similar improvements in recognition and recall of novel words (e.g. 'biscal') 24 hours after training, suggesting an intact ability to consolidate explicit knowledge of new spoken word forms. TD children showed competition effects for existing neighbors (e.g. 'biscuit') after 24 hours, suggesting that the new words had been integrated with existing knowledge over time. In contrast, children with ASD showed immediate competition effects that were not significant after 24 hours, suggesting a qualitative difference in the time course of lexical integration. These results are considered from the perspective of the dual-memory systems framework.

A new pigment, C2IH22O5, rubropunctatin has been isolated from Monascus rubropunctatus SBto. With aqueous ammonia this gives a nitrogen analogue, rubropunctatamine, C,,H2,0,N, which, on reduction with zinc and acetic acid is degraded to an 8-hydroxyisoquinoline derivative, aporubropunctatamine, C,,H2,O2N, and one mol. of carbon dioxide. From degradative studies on the parent compound and these derivatives, aporubropunctatamine is shown to have structure (XII) , whilst structures (XIXa) and (XVIII) are proposed for rubropunctatin and rubropunctatamine respectively.Exhaustive hydrogenation of rubropunctatin gives hexahydroaporubropunctatin, C2oH3003, for which structure (XXIa) is proposed.The probable biogenesis of rubropunctatin is discussed and possible structural implications for the related compound rotiorin are tentatively suggested. DURING an investigation into the metabolic products of the Monascus genus in thisDepartment, a new red pigment, rubropunctatin was isolated from the mycelium of M . rubvopunctatus %to. In a preliminary account of this work2 a close relation was pointed out between the properties of the pigments s~l e r o t i o r i n ,~~~~~,~~~ rotiorin,' monascin,8 monascorubrin? and rubropunctatin.The present paper describes the structural investigations on rubropunctatin which have been carried out during the last five years.Rubropunctatin has the molecular formula, C2lH2205, although the formula, C2,H,0,, Part XXXVI, Dean, Staunton, and Whalley,

Of 120 consecutive attenders at an oncology outpatients department, 108 were screened for psychological symptoms using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983). Thirty-nine patients had significant scores indicating moderate anxiety and/or depression. We felt that this warranted an offer of group psychotherapy in the belief that sharing issues and exploring personal concerns may alleviate some of the experienced psychological distress. Only 10 patients consented to and were able to attend this group, with which five patients persisted. Thus in this group of patients with advanced cancer group psychotherapy was applicable only to a limited number of selected patients. The nature of this study and the size of the population markedly limited our ability to comment on the usefulness of group psychotherapy. Many patients, particularly the most severely psychologically distressed, continued to require other forms of support, particularly domiciliary individual therapy.

Structure (111), suggested for monascin, is shown t o be compatible with the physical and chemical properties of the parent pigment and its derived compounds. Evidence has been obtained that the parent pigment may contain small amounts of the bis-homologue (V). The nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of monascin and its derivatives are discussed in an Appendix.

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