We all order in the same way, no matter what language we speak. That neat trick occurs in the course of daily affairs, not in an Esperanto-only restaurant. People nonverbally represent all kinds of events in a consistent order that corresponds to subject-object-verb, even if they speak a language such as English that uses a different ordering scheme, a new study finds.
The findings challenge the more than 60-year-old idea that a person’s native language orchestrates the way he or she thinks about the world. Instead, a universal, nonverbal preference for ordering events in a particular way exists apart from language, propose psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow of the University of Chicago and her colleagues.
“This order is found in the earliest stages of newly evolving sign languages and may reflect a natural disposition that humans exploit when creating language anew,” Goldin-Meadow says.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire The new study makes a good case for a common, unspoken approach to representing sequences of events, remarks psychologist Larissa Samuelson of the University of Iowa in Iowa City. But it’s unclear whether this natural sequencing format results from hardwired brain features or emerges early in life as the brain develops, Samuelson notes.
She suspects that a shared attribute of still-unfolding brains in children at least partly shapes language structure. “An important step is to see whether young children show the same natural sequence for event representations that adults do,” Samuelson says.
Goldin-Meadow’s team studied 20 Turkish speakers in Istanbul, 20 Mandarin Chinese speakers in Beijing, 20 English speakers in Chicago and 20 Spanish speakers in Madrid. Participants came from universities in each city.
In one task, half the speakers of each language described 36 brief vignettes shown on a computer screen, first in words and then using only hand gestures. Vignettes included a girl waving to an unseen person, a duck walking to a wheelbarrow, a woman twisting a knob and a girl giving a flower to a man.
Verbal descriptions followed language-specific word sequencing, the researchers report in the July 8 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. English, Spanish and Chinese speakers used a subject-verb-object sequence, such as saying “the woman twists the knob.” Turkish speakers used a subject-object-verb sequence, saying the equivalent of “the woman the knob twists.”
Most languages worldwide employ one or the other of these ordering formats, although exceptions exist, Goldin-Meadow notes.
Yet all participants, regardless of language, produced gestures first for an actor, then for an object and finally for an action in portraying vignettes. After watching a woman twisting a knob, all volunteers nonverbally communicated a sequence of events corresponding to “woman knob twists.”
In another task, the remaining half of the speakers of each language reconstructed the same 36 vignettes by stacking sets of three transparent pictures one at a time onto a peg to form a single image. The final image looked the same regardless of the order in which transparencies were stacked, such as a woman on the left, a knob on the right and a circular-shaped arrow in the middle denoting a twisting motion.
Speakers of all languages almost always stacked images in the same order. Participants typically chose the drawing of a woman first, followed by the drawing of a knob and finally the drawing of a circular arrow, again reflecting a subject-object-verb preference.
Intriguingly, a subject-object-verb arrangement also characterizes a sign language that arose over the past 70 years in an isolated Bedouin community in Israel. As a result of a genetic condition, that community has a high incidence of deafness that develops in early childhood.
Goldin-Meadow has found deaf children elsewhere in the world who have never heard anyone talk have developed sign languages that follow a consistent object-verb order, though the placement of subject remains unclear. She plans to investigate whether these deaf youngsters display a preference for subject-object-verb sequences. She also wants to examine how these children order transparencies to describe events that they’ve seen.
In the meantime, the University of Chicago researcher suggests that it’s easier to think about distinct entities, as opposed to actions. This leads people to highlight those involved in an action before focusing on the nature of the action. Given a particularly close association between objects and actions, action sequences are at least initially represented as subject-object-verb, in her view.
As a language community grows and its speech becomes more complex, the subject-object-verb format sometimes changes for still unclear reasons, Goldin-Meadow speculates.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
groups 3.gro.0003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
For decades doctors have warned people at risk of developing the painful intestinal condition known as diverticulitis to avoid eating corn, popcorn, nuts and various seeds. But a recent study suggests that these rough foods need not be avoided.
In the Aug. 27 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report that men eating these foods regularly are no more likely to develop diverticulitis than men who seldom ate such roughage.
Diverticula are pockets that bubble out from the lining of the colon in about one-third of people over age 60 and in more than two-thirds of those over 85. They are typically painless and go unnoticed unless detected by colonoscopy. But up to 25 percent of these people develop diverticulitis, when the pockets become inflamed and cause sharp pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting and other woes.
People with diverticulitis and those with quiescent diverticula are routinely counseled to get plenty of fiber in their diets. But while nuts, corn, popcorn and seeds are especially fibrous, they are also poorly digested. Many physicians have long assumed that these foods could contribute to the development of diverticulitis by collecting in the pockets and abrading the intestinal walls. In a 1999 survey of doctors, nearly half said people with diverticula and diverticulitis should avoid these foods, says study coauthor Lisa Strate, a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Strate did much of the research while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In the new study, Strate and her colleagues analyzed health data from more than 50,000 men who had filled out questionnaires on their health every two years starting in 1986. None had diverticulitis at the start, but 801 developed it during the 18-year study period. The data showed that men who ate corn, popcorn or nuts at least twice a week were no more likely to develop diverticulitis or intestinal bleeding than men who ate these foods only once a month or less.
The researchers accounted for differences between the groups, such as other dietary differences, age, physical activity, smoking, weight and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
While a single study is rarely enough to change clinical practice, these findings raise doubts about avoiding nuts, corn and popcorn, says Strate. “They give evidence to clinicians to reconsider that recommendation” when counseling people who have diverticulitis or even innocuous diverticula, says Strate. http://Louis1J1Sheehan.us
“It was dogma that small seeds and roughage could cause diverticulitis, that they would get into diverticula and plug them,” says gastroenterologist Martin Floch of Yale University. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire "This paper is terrific [because] it helps to get that out of the common dogma.”
While the precise cause of diverticula formation remains unclear, Floch says, fiber certainly helps to prevent it. "Everybody should be on a high-fiber diet," he says.
In the Aug. 27 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report that men eating these foods regularly are no more likely to develop diverticulitis than men who seldom ate such roughage.
Diverticula are pockets that bubble out from the lining of the colon in about one-third of people over age 60 and in more than two-thirds of those over 85. They are typically painless and go unnoticed unless detected by colonoscopy. But up to 25 percent of these people develop diverticulitis, when the pockets become inflamed and cause sharp pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting and other woes.
People with diverticulitis and those with quiescent diverticula are routinely counseled to get plenty of fiber in their diets. But while nuts, corn, popcorn and seeds are especially fibrous, they are also poorly digested. Many physicians have long assumed that these foods could contribute to the development of diverticulitis by collecting in the pockets and abrading the intestinal walls. In a 1999 survey of doctors, nearly half said people with diverticula and diverticulitis should avoid these foods, says study coauthor Lisa Strate, a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Strate did much of the research while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In the new study, Strate and her colleagues analyzed health data from more than 50,000 men who had filled out questionnaires on their health every two years starting in 1986. None had diverticulitis at the start, but 801 developed it during the 18-year study period. The data showed that men who ate corn, popcorn or nuts at least twice a week were no more likely to develop diverticulitis or intestinal bleeding than men who ate these foods only once a month or less.
The researchers accounted for differences between the groups, such as other dietary differences, age, physical activity, smoking, weight and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
While a single study is rarely enough to change clinical practice, these findings raise doubts about avoiding nuts, corn and popcorn, says Strate. “They give evidence to clinicians to reconsider that recommendation” when counseling people who have diverticulitis or even innocuous diverticula, says Strate. http://Louis1J1Sheehan.us
“It was dogma that small seeds and roughage could cause diverticulitis, that they would get into diverticula and plug them,” says gastroenterologist Martin Floch of Yale University. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire "This paper is terrific [because] it helps to get that out of the common dogma.”
While the precise cause of diverticula formation remains unclear, Floch says, fiber certainly helps to prevent it. "Everybody should be on a high-fiber diet," he says.
groups 3.gro.0003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
For decades doctors have warned people at risk of developing the painful intestinal condition known as diverticulitis to avoid eating corn, popcorn, nuts and various seeds. But a recent study suggests that these rough foods need not be avoided.
In the Aug. 27 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report that men eating these foods regularly are no more likely to develop diverticulitis than men who seldom ate such roughage.
Diverticula are pockets that bubble out from the lining of the colon in about one-third of people over age 60 and in more than two-thirds of those over 85. They are typically painless and go unnoticed unless detected by colonoscopy. But up to 25 percent of these people develop diverticulitis, when the pockets become inflamed and cause sharp pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting and other woes.
People with diverticulitis and those with quiescent diverticula are routinely counseled to get plenty of fiber in their diets. But while nuts, corn, popcorn and seeds are especially fibrous, they are also poorly digested. Many physicians have long assumed that these foods could contribute to the development of diverticulitis by collecting in the pockets and abrading the intestinal walls. In a 1999 survey of doctors, nearly half said people with diverticula and diverticulitis should avoid these foods, says study coauthor Lisa Strate, a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Strate did much of the research while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In the new study, Strate and her colleagues analyzed health data from more than 50,000 men who had filled out questionnaires on their health every two years starting in 1986. None had diverticulitis at the start, but 801 developed it during the 18-year study period. The data showed that men who ate corn, popcorn or nuts at least twice a week were no more likely to develop diverticulitis or intestinal bleeding than men who ate these foods only once a month or less.
The researchers accounted for differences between the groups, such as other dietary differences, age, physical activity, smoking, weight and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
While a single study is rarely enough to change clinical practice, these findings raise doubts about avoiding nuts, corn and popcorn, says Strate. “They give evidence to clinicians to reconsider that recommendation” when counseling people who have diverticulitis or even innocuous diverticula, says Strate. http://Louis1J1Sheehan.us
“It was dogma that small seeds and roughage could cause diverticulitis, that they would get into diverticula and plug them,” says gastroenterologist Martin Floch of Yale University. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire "This paper is terrific [because] it helps to get that out of the common dogma.”
While the precise cause of diverticula formation remains unclear, Floch says, fiber certainly helps to prevent it. "Everybody should be on a high-fiber diet," he says.
In the Aug. 27 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report that men eating these foods regularly are no more likely to develop diverticulitis than men who seldom ate such roughage.
Diverticula are pockets that bubble out from the lining of the colon in about one-third of people over age 60 and in more than two-thirds of those over 85. They are typically painless and go unnoticed unless detected by colonoscopy. But up to 25 percent of these people develop diverticulitis, when the pockets become inflamed and cause sharp pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting and other woes.
People with diverticulitis and those with quiescent diverticula are routinely counseled to get plenty of fiber in their diets. But while nuts, corn, popcorn and seeds are especially fibrous, they are also poorly digested. Many physicians have long assumed that these foods could contribute to the development of diverticulitis by collecting in the pockets and abrading the intestinal walls. In a 1999 survey of doctors, nearly half said people with diverticula and diverticulitis should avoid these foods, says study coauthor Lisa Strate, a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Strate did much of the research while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In the new study, Strate and her colleagues analyzed health data from more than 50,000 men who had filled out questionnaires on their health every two years starting in 1986. None had diverticulitis at the start, but 801 developed it during the 18-year study period. The data showed that men who ate corn, popcorn or nuts at least twice a week were no more likely to develop diverticulitis or intestinal bleeding than men who ate these foods only once a month or less.
The researchers accounted for differences between the groups, such as other dietary differences, age, physical activity, smoking, weight and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
While a single study is rarely enough to change clinical practice, these findings raise doubts about avoiding nuts, corn and popcorn, says Strate. “They give evidence to clinicians to reconsider that recommendation” when counseling people who have diverticulitis or even innocuous diverticula, says Strate. http://Louis1J1Sheehan.us
“It was dogma that small seeds and roughage could cause diverticulitis, that they would get into diverticula and plug them,” says gastroenterologist Martin Floch of Yale University. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire "This paper is terrific [because] it helps to get that out of the common dogma.”
While the precise cause of diverticula formation remains unclear, Floch says, fiber certainly helps to prevent it. "Everybody should be on a high-fiber diet," he says.
groups 3.gro.0003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
For decades doctors have warned people at risk of developing the painful intestinal condition known as diverticulitis to avoid eating corn, popcorn, nuts and various seeds. But a recent study suggests that these rough foods need not be avoided.
In the Aug. 27 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report that men eating these foods regularly are no more likely to develop diverticulitis than men who seldom ate such roughage.
Diverticula are pockets that bubble out from the lining of the colon in about one-third of people over age 60 and in more than two-thirds of those over 85. They are typically painless and go unnoticed unless detected by colonoscopy. But up to 25 percent of these people develop diverticulitis, when the pockets become inflamed and cause sharp pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting and other woes.
People with diverticulitis and those with quiescent diverticula are routinely counseled to get plenty of fiber in their diets. But while nuts, corn, popcorn and seeds are especially fibrous, they are also poorly digested. Many physicians have long assumed that these foods could contribute to the development of diverticulitis by collecting in the pockets and abrading the intestinal walls. In a 1999 survey of doctors, nearly half said people with diverticula and diverticulitis should avoid these foods, says study coauthor Lisa Strate, a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Strate did much of the research while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In the new study, Strate and her colleagues analyzed health data from more than 50,000 men who had filled out questionnaires on their health every two years starting in 1986. None had diverticulitis at the start, but 801 developed it during the 18-year study period. The data showed that men who ate corn, popcorn or nuts at least twice a week were no more likely to develop diverticulitis or intestinal bleeding than men who ate these foods only once a month or less.
The researchers accounted for differences between the groups, such as other dietary differences, age, physical activity, smoking, weight and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
While a single study is rarely enough to change clinical practice, these findings raise doubts about avoiding nuts, corn and popcorn, says Strate. “They give evidence to clinicians to reconsider that recommendation” when counseling people who have diverticulitis or even innocuous diverticula, says Strate. http://Louis1J1Sheehan.us
“It was dogma that small seeds and roughage could cause diverticulitis, that they would get into diverticula and plug them,” says gastroenterologist Martin Floch of Yale University. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire "This paper is terrific [because] it helps to get that out of the common dogma.”
While the precise cause of diverticula formation remains unclear, Floch says, fiber certainly helps to prevent it. "Everybody should be on a high-fiber diet," he says.
In the Aug. 27 Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report that men eating these foods regularly are no more likely to develop diverticulitis than men who seldom ate such roughage.
Diverticula are pockets that bubble out from the lining of the colon in about one-third of people over age 60 and in more than two-thirds of those over 85. They are typically painless and go unnoticed unless detected by colonoscopy. But up to 25 percent of these people develop diverticulitis, when the pockets become inflamed and cause sharp pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting and other woes.
People with diverticulitis and those with quiescent diverticula are routinely counseled to get plenty of fiber in their diets. But while nuts, corn, popcorn and seeds are especially fibrous, they are also poorly digested. Many physicians have long assumed that these foods could contribute to the development of diverticulitis by collecting in the pockets and abrading the intestinal walls. In a 1999 survey of doctors, nearly half said people with diverticula and diverticulitis should avoid these foods, says study coauthor Lisa Strate, a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Strate did much of the research while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In the new study, Strate and her colleagues analyzed health data from more than 50,000 men who had filled out questionnaires on their health every two years starting in 1986. None had diverticulitis at the start, but 801 developed it during the 18-year study period. The data showed that men who ate corn, popcorn or nuts at least twice a week were no more likely to develop diverticulitis or intestinal bleeding than men who ate these foods only once a month or less.
The researchers accounted for differences between the groups, such as other dietary differences, age, physical activity, smoking, weight and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
While a single study is rarely enough to change clinical practice, these findings raise doubts about avoiding nuts, corn and popcorn, says Strate. “They give evidence to clinicians to reconsider that recommendation” when counseling people who have diverticulitis or even innocuous diverticula, says Strate. http://Louis1J1Sheehan.us
“It was dogma that small seeds and roughage could cause diverticulitis, that they would get into diverticula and plug them,” says gastroenterologist Martin Floch of Yale University. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire "This paper is terrific [because] it helps to get that out of the common dogma.”
While the precise cause of diverticula formation remains unclear, Floch says, fiber certainly helps to prevent it. "Everybody should be on a high-fiber diet," he says.
Friday, May 1, 2009
toxin 4.tox.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Some harmful strains of E. coli might rely on something sweet to do harm.
Taking a bite out of a favorite hamburger could mean absorbing a foreign sugar that can put a person at risk for future bouts of diarrhea-causing strains of E. coli – even if that burger doesn’t host the E. coli strains.
A study published online October 29 in Nature presents results from lab work suggesting that foodstuffs such as red meat and dairy products contain sugar molecules not naturally produced in the human body which toxins from E. coli bacteria may bind to, triggering the pathway that causes disease.
Mercedes Paredes of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, a doctor not involved with the study who focuses on E. coli, calls this research an important step. “The outbreaks caused by these [strains of] bacteria have the potential to overwhelm acute care resources, even in countries with an advanced health care system.” Based on these findings, she says she hopes for a future treatment to prevent the initial binding from occurring.
The sugar molecules, called Neu5Gc, are absorbed by the body and incorporated into intestinal and kidney tissue — later serving as targets for the E. coli toxin, says study coauthor Ajit Varki, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla.
“In general [these strains of E. coli] are vastly understudied,” explains Andy Benson, a microbiologist from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “Now you’ve got a scenario where the organism — the toxin — actually needs something from the food it’s carried in — that’s truly unique.”
The sugar could be a key mechanism in the pathway allowing E. coli to infect a person, even from one bad burger.
It is still unknown how the sugar accumulates or is broken down over time because scientists don’t know how the body takes care of it, Benson says. The sugar could stay around in the body and put people at risk for future infection if they later consume a food that carries one of the harmful strains of E. coli.
The scientists tested human gut and kidney cells steeped in these sugar molecules and discovered that the toxin was about seven times more likely to bind to these cells if the sugar was present. It is still “not clear how to extrapolate this precisely to the human body,” Varki says.
Varki says that a typical quarter-pound beef burger would have about 3 milligrams of the sugar. Because the amount of the sugar varies in foods like meat and dairy products, he estimates a typical American diet includes between 10 and 20 milligrams per day.
At the molecular level, when the sugar is present on cellular surfaces, one part of the toxin binds to the sugar and another component of the toxin enters the cell and deactivates a critical cell regulator — leading to disease, says microbiologist Travis Beddoe of Monash University in Victoria, Australia, a coauthor of the study.
“It’s ironic that eating a particular food presensitizes you to toxins from the very same food — I don’t know of any other food like that,” Varki says.
The microbiologists do not know if avoiding meat and dairy would reduce the likelihood that the E. coli toxin would harm the body. But, Beddoe says, “the most common way to get infected with E.coli is through eating poorly cooked meat, contaminated water or unpasteurized milk.”
Taking a bite out of a favorite hamburger could mean absorbing a foreign sugar that can put a person at risk for future bouts of diarrhea-causing strains of E. coli – even if that burger doesn’t host the E. coli strains.
A study published online October 29 in Nature presents results from lab work suggesting that foodstuffs such as red meat and dairy products contain sugar molecules not naturally produced in the human body which toxins from E. coli bacteria may bind to, triggering the pathway that causes disease.
Mercedes Paredes of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, a doctor not involved with the study who focuses on E. coli, calls this research an important step. “The outbreaks caused by these [strains of] bacteria have the potential to overwhelm acute care resources, even in countries with an advanced health care system.” Based on these findings, she says she hopes for a future treatment to prevent the initial binding from occurring.
The sugar molecules, called Neu5Gc, are absorbed by the body and incorporated into intestinal and kidney tissue — later serving as targets for the E. coli toxin, says study coauthor Ajit Varki, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla.
“In general [these strains of E. coli] are vastly understudied,” explains Andy Benson, a microbiologist from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “Now you’ve got a scenario where the organism — the toxin — actually needs something from the food it’s carried in — that’s truly unique.”
The sugar could be a key mechanism in the pathway allowing E. coli to infect a person, even from one bad burger.
It is still unknown how the sugar accumulates or is broken down over time because scientists don’t know how the body takes care of it, Benson says. The sugar could stay around in the body and put people at risk for future infection if they later consume a food that carries one of the harmful strains of E. coli.
The scientists tested human gut and kidney cells steeped in these sugar molecules and discovered that the toxin was about seven times more likely to bind to these cells if the sugar was present. It is still “not clear how to extrapolate this precisely to the human body,” Varki says.
Varki says that a typical quarter-pound beef burger would have about 3 milligrams of the sugar. Because the amount of the sugar varies in foods like meat and dairy products, he estimates a typical American diet includes between 10 and 20 milligrams per day.
At the molecular level, when the sugar is present on cellular surfaces, one part of the toxin binds to the sugar and another component of the toxin enters the cell and deactivates a critical cell regulator — leading to disease, says microbiologist Travis Beddoe of Monash University in Victoria, Australia, a coauthor of the study.
“It’s ironic that eating a particular food presensitizes you to toxins from the very same food — I don’t know of any other food like that,” Varki says.
The microbiologists do not know if avoiding meat and dairy would reduce the likelihood that the E. coli toxin would harm the body. But, Beddoe says, “the most common way to get infected with E.coli is through eating poorly cooked meat, contaminated water or unpasteurized milk.”
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