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Biomedical subjects

P Bloom

Publications and source records attributed to P Bloom.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Syntactic cues in the acquisition of collective nouns.

One basic finding in the study of word learning is that children tend to construe a word describing an object as referring to the kind of whole object, rather than to a part of the object, one of its properties, or the substance it is made of. This has been taken as evidence that there exist certain special constraints on word meaning that guide children to favor the kind-of-object interpretation when exposed to a new word. There are descriptive problems with this proposal, however, as it cannot explain how children learn other kinds of words, such as names for specific people, substances, parts, events, collections, and periods of time. These problems motivate an alternative theory in which young children possess several distinct conceptual categories--including "individual", which is more abstract than "whole object"--and can use syntactic cues to determine the conceptual category that a new word belongs to. This theory is explored in two experiments in which we attempt to use syntactic cues to teach children and adults novel collective nouns--words that refer to groups of objects. The results indicate that children can use such cues to learn names for kinds of individuals that are not whole objects, although they are less able to do so than adults. Candidate explanations for why this developmental difference exists are discussed and implications are drawn for theories of word learning and conceptual representation.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Outpatient management of small traumatic hyphaemas: is it safe?

In this prospective study patients with small traumatic hyphaemas were managed as ambulatory outpatients. No routine systemic or topical treatment was given. The patients were reviewed daily in the Casualty Department until the blood had cleared, after which they were examined fully. The incidence of rebleeding and the number of days for the blood to clear were comparable to figures for hospitalised bed-bound patients. Nine patients (21%) defaulted from follow-up. Outpatient management of small traumatic hyphaemas is safe in compliant patients and may save valuable resources.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Syntactic distinctions in child language.

This paper presents a study of young children's understanding of a constraint on English word order, which is that pronouns and proper names cannot be modified by prenominal adjectives. For adults, this is a syntactic constraint: adjectives can only precede nouns, and pronouns and proper names are lexical Noun Phrases (NPs). In two analyses, the spontaneous speech of 14 one- and two-year-old children was studied. These analyses show that even in children's very first word combinations, they almost never say things like big Fred or big he. Some nonsyntactic theories of this phenomenon are discussed and found to have serious descriptive problems, supporting the claim that children understand knowledge of word order through rules that order abstract linguistic categories. A theory is proposed as to how children could use semantic information to draw the noun/NP distinction and to acquire this restriction on English word order.

Child Language↗
PubMed1990

Soap gets in your eyes.

We present a previously unreported series of five cases of acute angle closure glaucoma associated with watching the Australia soap opera "Neighbours". Two cases were bilateral and associated with watching two episodes of "Neighbours" on the same day. The pathogenesis, and possible role of watching soap operas in the causation of primary angle closure glaucoma is discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1980

Prediction of serum gentamicin concentrations in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

The predictability of a one-compartment pharmacokinetic model for estimating serum gentamicin concentrations in patients undergoing hemodialysis was studied. Nine hemodialysis patients with gram-negative bacillary infections requiring aminoglycoside therapy and with creatinine clearances of less than 1 ml/min were studied. A series of blood samples was assayed by radioimmunoassay to determine serum concentrations after an initial 1.5- to 2.0-mg/kg i.v. dose and throughout the dialysis period. These data were used to predict post-dialysis serum concentrations and post-dialysis doses needed to achieve therapeutic concentrations. The mean apparent volume of distribution for gentamicin was 0.26 +/- 0.06 liter/kg. The mean gentamicin half-life was 31.5 hours before dialysis and 7.6 hours during dialysis. No significant differences were found between predicted and measured peak gentamicin serum concentrations after dialysis; nor were there significant differences for peak serum concentrations obtained with a post-dialysis gentamicin dose (p less than 0.001). Neither the peaks predicted based on the individual patient's pharmacokinetic values nor those based on the average of the patients' pharmcokinetic values were statistically different from measured. The kinetic model developed can be used to determine gentamicin dosing for hemodialysis patients and to determine an average elimination rate constant for a given dialysis apparatus.

Adult↗