How sociolinguistic factors shape children's subjective impressions of teacher quality.

When university students are asked to rate their instructors, their evaluations are often influenced by the demographic characteristics of the instructor-such as the instructor's race, gender, or language background. These influences can manifest in unfair systematic biases against particular groups of teachers and hamper movements to promote diversity in higher education. When and how do these biases develop? Here, we begin to address these questions by examining children's sociolinguistic biases against teachers who speak with different accents.

A Global Perspective on Testing Infants Online: Introducing ManyBabies-AtHome.

Online testing holds great promise for infant scientists. It could increase participant diversity, improve reproducibility and collaborative possibilities, and reduce costs for researchers and participants. However, despite the rise of platforms and participant databases, little work has been done to overcome the challenges of making this approach available to researchers across the world.

The effect of accent exposure on children's sociolinguistic evaluation of peers.

Language and accent strongly influence the formation of social groups. By five years of age, children already show strong social preferences for peers who speak their native language with a familiar accent (Kinzler, Shutts, DeJesus, & Spelke, 2009). However, little is known about the factors that modulate the strength and direction of children's accent-based group preferences.

Input matters: Speed of word recognition in 2-year-olds exposed to multiple accents.

Although studies investigating language abilities in young children exposed to more than one language have become common, there is still surprisingly little research examining language development in children exposed to more than one accent. Here, we report two looking-while-listening experiments examining the impact of routine home exposure to multiple accents on 2-year-olds' word recognition abilities. In Experiment 1, we found that monolingual English-learning 24-month-olds who routinely receive exposure to both Canadian English and a non-native variant of English are less efficient in their recognition of familiar words spoken in Canadian English than monolingual English-learning 24-month-olds who hear only Canadian English at home.

Dutch and German 3-Year-Olds' Representations of Voicing Alternations.

The voicing contrast is neutralized syllable and word finally in Dutch and German, leading to alternations within the morphological paradigm (e.g., Dutch 'bed(s)', be[t]-be[d]en, German 'dog(s)', Hun[t]-Hun[d]e).

Using Distributional Statistics to Acquire Morphophonological Alternations: Evidence from Production and Perception.

Morphophonological alternations, such as the voicing alternation that arises in a morphological paradigm due to final-devoicing in Dutch, are notoriously difficult for children to acquire. This has previously been attributed to their unpredictability. In fact, the presence or absence of a voicing alternation is partly predictable if the phonological context of the word is taken into account, and adults have been shown to use this information (Ernestus and Baayen, 2003).

Non-classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia in association with porphyria cutanea tarda: co-incidence or trigger?

We present an interesting case of porphria cutanea tarda with hereditary haemochromatosis and non-classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia in a postmenopausal woman. This unusual combination of conditions does not appear to be reported in the literature. The exact mechanism causing porphyria in this patient is not clear.

The menopause transition: endocrine changes and clinical symptoms.

Several biological changes take place during the menopause transition. The number of oocytes declines progressively from before birth but reaches a critically low level by the time of the menopause. The regular pattern of the menstrual cycle becomes disrupted and the frequency of normal ovulatory cycles declines.

Screening for insulin resistance in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Introduction: Insulin resistance is implicated in the pathogenesis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Insulin-sensitizing agents are increasingly used in the treatment of infertility and hirsutism in PCOS. However, not all women with PCOS are insulin-resistant.

Long-term negative impact on quality of life in patients with successfully treated Cushing's disease.

Objective: A cohort of pituitary tumour patients, who had undergone definitive treatment within a 15-year period at a single neuroscience centre, were investigated as to whether there were differences in psychological well-being and psychosocial functioning, dependent on endocrine pathology and treatment variables.

Design: A detailed assessment of 114 patients with benign pituitary tumours in relation to primary diagnosis and mode of treatment was carried out. Psychological rating scales used were: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale--UK version (HADS-UK), the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale--abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF), General Health Questionnaire 28 (GHQ-28), the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) and the Social Adjustment Scale--modified (SAS1 and SAS2; the former completed by the patient and the latter by another person who knows the patient well).

The effect of a novel vaginal ring delivering oestradiol acetate on climacteric symptoms in postmenopausal women.

Objective: Evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of a novel vaginal ring delivering oestradiol acetate (Menoring) versus oral oestradiol for relief of climacteric symptoms in postmenopausal women.

Design: Prospective, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, comparator-controlled, parallel group study.

Setting: Twenty-one centres in the United Kingdom.