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Biomedical subjects

A E Booth

Publications and source records attributed to A E Booth.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Seeing pink elephants: fourteen-month-olds' interpretations of novel nouns and adjectives.

Words from different grammatical categories (e.g., nouns and adjectives) highlight different aspects of the same objects (e.g., object categories and object properties). Two experiments examine the acquisition of this phenomenon in 14-month-olds, asking whether infants can construe the very same set of objects (e.g., four purple animals) either as members of an object category (e.g., animals) or as embodying a salient object property (e.g., four purple things) and whether naming (with either count nouns or adjectives) influences infants' construals. Results suggest (1) that infants have begun to distinguish count nouns from adjectives, (2) that infants share with mature language-users an expectation that different grammatical forms highlight different aspects, and (3) that infants recruit these expectations when extending novel words. Further, these results suggest that an expectation linking count nouns to object categories emerges early in acquisition and supports the emergence of other word-to-world mappings.

Attention↗
PubMed2000

Principles that are invoked in the acquisition of words, but not facts.

A controversial question is whether language acquisition is the result of domain-general or domain-specific principles. Focusing on word-learning, Markson and Bloom (Nature 385(6619) (1997) 813) recently argued that the ability to learn and retain new words (count nouns) is the result of abilities that are not specific to language. In the current experiment, we replicate their empirical finding, but challenge their domain-general interpretation by highlighting a crucial distinction between the principles involved in learning a count noun, as compared to learning a fact. The current results confirm that learning count nouns and facts involve (at least) two common components: establishing a mapping to a designated individual, and retaining this mapping over time. However, these results go further to document that the processes invoked in the acquisition of words differ from those invoked in the acquisition of facts. Children spontaneously and systematically extended a novel count noun exclusively to other members of the same category, but revealed no such systematicity when extending a fact. This illustrates that there are principles that are invoked in learning a novel count noun that are not invoked in learning a fact.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1992

Vein of Galen aneurysm presenting in middle age.

A vein of Galen aneurysm occurring in a 55-year-old woman is presented. The pathogenesis and treatment of this condition, which is rare in adults, is discussed and the literature reviewed.

Cerebral Angiography↗
PubMed1985

Use of intrathecal morphine for postoperative pain relief following lumbar spine surgery.

A randomized prospective double-blind trial of intrathecal morphine for postoperative pain relief following lumbar spine surgery is described. Intrathecal morphine significantly reduced the mean pain score in the postoperative period (p less than 0.01) and there was a corresponding significant reduction in the need for additional postoperative analgesia (p less than 0.05). The possible mechanism of action of intrathecal morphine and the potential advantages of this technique are discussed. Possible side effects are also considered, and caution is urged until wider experience has been obtained.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Use of porcine dermis as a dural substitute in 72 patients.

Experience over a 2-year period with the use of porcine dermis as a dural substitute is reported. In this series, porcine dermis was used for dural repair in a total of 72 patients. In a further 28 patients, one of the authors (A.E.B.) used porcine dermis to wrap lumbar nerve roots at the time of surgery for either prolapsed intervertebral disc or extradural lumbar nerve root adhesions. The authors report the advantages of this material which include ready availability and low cost. It is extremely pliable, easy to handle, and can be applied to relatively inaccessible areas. It appears to become rapidly adherent so that suture fixation is frequently not required. No evidence of a foreign-body inflammatory response has been found. No untoward result has been encountered in the 28 patients in whom porcine dermis was used to wrap lumbar nerve roots but it remains too early to show whether this will reduce the incidence of postoperative extradural adhesions.

Bioprosthesis↗
PubMed1978

Subcutaneous cerebrospinal fluid reservoirs in patients with acute leukaemia.

Subcutaneous cerebrospinal fluid (Ommaya) reservoirs were inserted in 23 patients wich acute leukaemia and 2 patients with malignant lymphoma. In 9 leukaemia patients reservoirs were used for the prophylaxis of central nervous system leukaemia: only 1 patient developed meningeal leukaemia but less invasive therapy has now been shown to achieve effective prophylaxis and prophylactic use of Ommaya reservoirs has been discontinued. In 16 patients, reservoirs were inserted as aids to the treatment of meningeal leukaemia or lymphoma. Intracranial disease was successfully controlled and recurrences were prevented but patients eventually died from relapse of their systemic disease. The principal complications of the subcutaneous reservoirs were obstruction, misplacement, and one case of infection. Leucoencephalopathy in several patients was attributable to irradiation and cytotoxic drugs and not to the reservoirs. Problems due to misplacement of the reservoir occurred in 3 out of 13 reservoirs inserted by the occipital route and in only 1 of 12 reservoirs inserted by a frontal approach. With adequate supervision, the reservoirs are valuable aids to intrathecal therapy in patients with established meningeal leukaemia or lymphoma.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Postirradiation necrosis of the temporal lobe presenting as a glioma. Case report.

A patient is reported who presented with manifestations of a space-occupying lesion in the left temporal lobe thought to be a metastasis, but on radiological examination and surgical exploration appeared to be a diffuse infiltrative glioma. Some 21 months earlier he had received a course of fast neutron therapy to a carcinoma of the left parotid gland. Diagnosis by microscopic examination revealed changes characteristic of delayed radiation necrosis.

Adenocarcinoma↗