Four mother–child dyads were videotaped in a longitudinal study of the relationship between linguistic input to children and early lexical development. Diary records were also kept by the mothers and, together with the videorecordings, were used to identify the contexts in which the children produced their first words. These were compared with the contexts in which the mothers used these same words. It was found that there was a strong relationship between the children's initial use of words and the most frequently occurring use of these words by the mothers. It was also found that although the majority of the children's first words were context-bound, a significant number were referential. The implications of these findings for current theoretical proposals concerning early lexical development are discussed.

An anatomical study of the digestive tract of the channel catfish revealed that the oesophageal mucosa was longitudinally folded and that secondary folds were occasionally located on the primary longitudinal folds. The infoldings were more numerous near the stomach. The stratified squamous epithelium covering the folds was made up of a basal layer, large mucous cells and simple squamous cells on the surface. The epithelium on the side of the folds consisted primarily of mucous secreting cells. Taste buds were observed between mucous cells on the apical portion of the oesophageal folds and were more prevalent in the cranial part of the oesophagus. The remaining layers of the oesophagus were: a lamina propria-submucosa, tunica muscularis and adventitia or serosa.The J-shaped stomach had two regions: a large sac-shaped region containing gastric glands and a smaller, nonglandular pyloric region. The large rugae of the stomach became gradually smaller near the pylorus. There was a well developed pyloric sphincter. The mucosa included a simple columnar epithelium, a lamina propria and adventitia or serosa.The intestine could be differentiated into a thick ascending segment, a descending segment, a thin convoluted segment and a thicker terminal segment, the rectum. Many mucosal folds containing branched villi characterized the ascending segment of the intestine. The descending and convoluted segments contained fewer folds with shorter and lessbranching villi and were smaller in diameter and thinner walled. Descending and convoluted segments were also mildly convoluted and accounted for 80% of the total length of the intestine. An intestinal valve with a sphincter marked the beginning of the rectum. There was an approximately four-fold increase in the thickness of the tunica muscularis of the terminal segment of the intestine.

No abstract

The considerable influence of the masses of water in the Great Lakes on the weather over and around the Lakes is reviewed and the average lake‐related weather alterations are indicated. Particular emphasis is placed on delineating the known facts and those that are inadequately known. The lack of extensive continuous weather measurements, particularly over the lakes, makes definitive areal assessments of lake influences on the weather around them difficult. Whether the lakes act as the energy sources or sinks on a daily or seasonal basis depends on the relative temperature of the waters and the overlying air. Over the lakes and their downwind shore areas, the lake‐caused average changes in cloud and precipitation amounts represent 5–15% reductions in summer and 5–45% increases in winter in comparison with upwind values.

Six infants were videotaped twice between six and ten months of age while engaged in a free play session with their mothers. Division of the mothers' utterances into verbal episodes revealed that for all mothers, the majority of episodes began in response to something done by the child: from session 1 to session 2, the number of episodes initiated by a shift in the child's gaze decreased and the number initiated by a child action increased. During both sessions, a large percentage of maternal utterances referred to an object within the child's current frame of reference. It is argued that such a close correspondence between maternal speech and a contiguous nonverbal context is helpful for language development.

SummaryThis paper describes virological and epidemiological features of an infection which killed two of three affected cheetahs at Whipsnade Park in 1977. Two animals had profuse skin lesions and the third had an acute haemorrhagic pneumonia. The outbreak was shown to be caused by cowpox virus. Cowpox virus is believed to circulate in small wild animals, but the source of infection was not traced despite virological and serological tests on 93 captive and 102 wild animals.Sub-clinical infections did not occur in susceptible contact cheetahs. Immune globulin did not influence the outcome and smallpox vaccine does not take in cheetahs. Management of any future outbreak will rely on prompt diagnosis and segregation of infected animals.

In response to reports of negative cooperation between sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and their doctors, semi-structured interviews were conducted with sufferers from two different patient samples. Satisfaction with support received and with medical professionals in general was low. Sufferers complained about insufficient informational as well as emotional support from their doctors, and as a consequence most opted for alternative or complementary forms of treatment. In addition, disagreements over illness aetiology and treatment precluded effective cooperation. If satisfaction and compliance are to improve, sufferers will need more information about CFS and more support.

With 7 figures in the text)The metabolism and pattern of excretion of urinary steroids during oestrus and pregnancy in the Giant panda is described. Three female pandas from the London, Washington and Madrid Zoos were studied over different periods between March 1980 and September 1982. High pressure liquid chromatography and sequential enzyme hydrolysis indicated that oestrone glucuronide was the most abundant urinary oestrogen metabolite during oestrus. Levels of conjugated oestrone in late pregnancy, however, were low and similar to those of conjugated oestradiol-170.There was a rapid increase in the excretion of conjugated oestrone to reach maximum levels during late pro-oestrus; oestrus occurred when levels of conjugated oestrone were declining. The measurement of oestrone-3-glucuronide by direct, non-extraction assay provides a rapid and reliable method for detecting oestrus and ovulation in the Giant panda.Artificial insemination of the London and Madrid pandas was performed in 1981 and 1982, respectively. The Madrid panda gave birth to twin cubs after a gestation period of I59 days. Levels of urinary oestrone conjugate remained low throughout pregnancy. There was no increase in the excretion of pregnanediol-3a-glucuronide (assumed to be an urinary metabolite of progesterone) until approximately day I20 when a rapid. five-fold increase in levels occurred. The levels of pregnanediol-3a-glucuronide remained elevated for approximately three weeks after which there was a gradual decline beginning two-and-ahalf weeks before parturition. Measurement of pregnanediol-3a-glucuronide enables the detection of pregnancy after three to four months and should also be useful in predicting parturition. A delay of implantation during pregnancy in the Giant panda is suggested.There was no consistent elevation in pregnanediol-3a-glucuronide excretion in the five months after artificial insemination of the London panda, despite a marked increase in circulating progesterone of ovarian origin. Pregnancy could not be confirmed from external exam,ination of the uterus at laparotomy; histological examination of biopsy material revealed advanced endometrial h yperplasia.