Children's understanding of demonstratives: an experimental study with German-speaking children between 5 and 7 years of age.

Demonstratives ("this"/"that") express a speaker-relative distance contrast and need to be substituted for each other systematically: depending on their relative position, what one speaker refers to by saying "this" another speaker has to refer to by saying "that." This substitution aspect of demonstratives poses additional difficulties for learning demonstratives, because it requires recognizing that two speakers have to refer to the same thing with different words, and might be one reason for the reportedly protracted acquisition of demonstratives. In an online study conducted in German, it was investigated whether children in the estimated upper age range of demonstrative acquisition (5 to 7 years) understand demonstratives' substitution aspect with familiar ("dies"/"das") and novel ("schmi"/"schmu") demonstratives, and whether they understand novel words ("schmi"/"schmu") when used non-demonstratively as labels ( = 73; between-subject).

Toddlers Prefer Adults as Informants: 2- and 3-Year-Olds' Use of and Attention to Pointing Gestures From Peer and Adult Partners.

Two- and 3-year-old children (N = 96) were tested in an object-choice task with video presentations of peer and adult partners. An immersive, semi-interactive procedure enabled both the close matching of adult and peer conditions and the combination of participants' choice behavior with looking time measures. Children were more likely to use information provided by adults.

Young children's developing ability to integrate gestural and emotional cues.

In three studies, children aged 22 to 46 months (N = 180) needed to integrate pointing gestures or gaze cues with positive and negative facial expressions to succeed in an object-choice task. Finding a toy required children to either choose (positive expression) or avoid (negative expression) the indicated target. Study 1 showed that 22-month-olds are better at integrating a positive facial expression with a pointing gesture compared with a negative facial expression with a pointing gesture.

Young children spontaneously recreate core properties of language in a new modality.

How the world's 6,000+ natural languages have arisen is mostly unknown. Yet, new sign languages have emerged recently among deaf people brought together in a community, offering insights into the dynamics of language evolution. However, documenting the emergence of these languages has mostly consisted of studying the end product; the process by which ad hoc signs are transformed into a structured communication system has not been directly observed.

The origin of pointing: Evidence for the touch hypothesis.

Pointing gestures play a foundational role in human language, but up to now, we have not known where these gestures come from. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that pointing originates in touch. We found, first, that when pointing at a target, children and adults oriented their fingers not as though trying to create an "arrow" that picks out the target but instead as though they were aiming to touch it; second, that when pointing at a target at an angle, participants rotated their wrists to match that angle as they would if they were trying to touch the target; and last, that young children interpret pointing gestures as if they were attempts to touch things, not as arrows.

Two-year-olds use adults' but not peers' points.

In the current study, 24- to 27-month-old children (N = 37) used pointing gestures in a cooperative object choice task with either peer or adult partners. When indicating the location of a hidden toy, children pointed equally accurately for adult and peer partners but more often for adult partners. When choosing from one of three hiding places, children used adults' pointing to find a hidden toy significantly more often than they used peers'.

Randomized trial of low-volume PEG solution versus standard PEG + electrolytes for bowel cleansing before colonoscopy.

Objectives: Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based gut lavage solutions are safe and effective, but require consumption of large volumes of fluid. We compared a new 2 L solution of PEG plus ascorbic acid (PEG + Asc) with standard 4 L PEG with electrolytes (PEG + E) for bowel cleansing before colonoscopy to determine efficacy, safety, and patient acceptability.

Methods: Consenting adult inpatients scheduled to undergo colonoscopy were randomized to receive either 2 L PEG + Asc or 4 L PEG + E.

Sucralfate in the treatment and prevention of gastric ulcer: multicentre double blind placebo controlled study.

A randomised controlled multicentre trial was performed in 160 patients with gastric ulcer, proved by endoscopy and biopsy, to compare ulcer healing with sucralfate and ranitidine (double blind double dummy design) and to assess the effect of maintenance treatment with sucralfate on ulcer recurrence (double blind placebo controlled design). The healing rates were similar with 4 g sucralfate suspension per day and 300 mg ranitidine per day (82% and 88% after 12 weeks, respectively). Of the 109 patients with healed ulcers, 92 were entered into the maintenance trial and treated with sucralfate tablets (2 g per day) or placebo tablets.

Gastric mucosal cell loss caused by aspirin and alcohol.

Gastric epithelial cell loss was studied in healthy volunteers before and after intragastric instillation of four aspirin (ASA) formulations and three strengths of alcohol. Each test solution was administered three times over a period of three hours during one of the experiments. Three of the four aspirin formulations significantly increased gastric epithelial cell loss.

[Therapy of stomach ulcer with sucralfate and ranitidine. A multicenter double-blind study].

134 outpatients with acute benign gastric ulcer confirmed by endoscopic biopsy received either 1 g sucralfate suspension four times daily or one 150 mg ranitidine tablet twice daily for six to 12 weeks in a multicentre therapy study (double-blind study according to the double-dummy technique). After six to 12 weeks, respectively, 56% and 82% of the ulcers had healed in the sucralfate group. The rates of healing in the ranitidine group were 72% and 88%, respectively.

Human intestinal motor activity and transport: effects of a synthetic opiate.

Effects of opiates on intestinal motor activity and transport of water and electrolytes have been studied separately in previous investigations. The aim of these experiments was to evaluate simultaneously the effects of a synthetic opiate, loperamide, on motor activity and transport in the human intestine. Jejunal, ileal, and colonic perfusions were performed in 9 healthy volunteers.

Enhanced glucose absorption in the jejunum of patients with cystic fibrosis.

After oral D-xylose ingestion, cystic fibrosis patients have significantly higher blood levels of xylose than controls. The aim of this study was to examine whether nutrient absorption at the mucosal level is altered in cystic fibrosis. Steady-state perfusion experiments using isotonic test solutions were performed in 11 healthy controls and 10 cystic fibrosis patients.

Effect of 13-norleucin motilin on water and ion transport in the human jejunum.

Passage of the interdigestive migrating myoelectric complex through the proximal small bowel is associated with elevated plasma motilin levels and an increase in transmucosal potential difference suggesting altered ion transport. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether motilin may have an effect on intestinal water and ion transport. Steady state jejunal perfusion studies were carried out in healthy volunteers while either saline (control) or synthetic motilin (256 pmol/kg X h) was infused via peripheral vein.

[Gastric microhemorrhage and acetylsalicylic acid. Prevention using prostaglandin E2].

The possible prophylactic effect of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) pretreatment against gastric microbleedings caused by acetylsalicylic acid was investigated in six healthy volunteers. Gastric microbleeding rate was determined by the gastric tube technique of Fisher and Hunt, at first without any medication. The test was repeated after a two-day intake of acetylsalicylic acid (four times 0.

[Age-related malabsorption symptoms].

Symptoms of malabsorption in the elderly are not simply due to their age, rather insufficient nutrition or disease processes are to be discussed. In the elderly, nutrition has to be adapted to a moderately reduced absorption of calcium and iron as well as to decreasing caloric needs with increasing age. Sufficient amounts of dietary vitamins and protein are strongly to be recommended.

[Burkitt lymphoma of African type in Europe (author's transl)].

A 34-year-old German woman who had never been to Africa developed a Burkitt lymphoma of African type during the fifth month of pregnancy. The diagnosis was confirmed during life by cytological and virological tests. There was a markedly increased antibody titre against the Epstein-Barr virus in serum as well as virus antigen in the tumour tissue.

Epstein-Barr virus-positive Burkitt's lymphoma in a German woman during pregnancy.

A fatal case of a Burkitt's lymphoma which occurred in a 34-year-old German woman during pregnancy is described. Nearly all organs showed either diffuse or nodular infiltration by tumor cells. Placenta and fetus were free of detectable tumor tissue.