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Despite much research into individual differences in social understanding among preschoolers, little is known about corresponding individual differences within younger children. Likewise, although studies of preschoolers highlight the importance of mental-state references, other aspects of talk have received less attention. The current study involved 120 families with 2-year-olds; video-based transcripts of observations of family interaction were coded for quantity, connectedness, and content of mothers’ and children’s talk. At 2, 3, and 4 years of age, children completed social understanding and verbal ability tests. Mothers’ connected turns and mental-state reference within connected turns showed independent associations with children’s social understanding (as did children’s mental-state references, both overall and within connected turns). Connected conversations provide a fertile context for children’s developing social understanding.

An effective and well tolerated intravenous (IV) bisphosphonate could provide a new treatment method for patients with osteoporosis. The Dosing IntraVenous Administration (DIVA) study was designed to identify the optimal ibandronate IV injection schedule for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis by comparing the efficacy and tolerability of 2- and 3-monthly injections with the previously evaluated daily oral ibandronate regimen. We report the effects on lumbar spine and proximal femur bone mineral density (BMD) and bone resorption markers over 2 years.This randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, noninferiority study recruited 1395 women (aged 55-80 yrs;or = 5 yrs since menopause) with osteoporosis [mean lumbar spine (L2-L4) BMD T-score-2.5 andor = -5.0]. Patients received IV ibandronate (2 mg every 2 mo or 3 mg every 3 mo) plus daily oral placebo, or 2.5 mg daily oral ibandronate plus 2- or 3-monthly IV placebo. Supplemental vitamin D (400 IU) and calcium (500 mg) were provided throughout the 2-year study.At 2 years, the 2- and 3-monthly IV regimens achieved statistically noninferior and also superior increases in lumbar spine BMD compared with the daily regimen (6.4% and 6.3% vs 4.8%, respectively; p0.001). Greater increases were also obtained with IV ibandronate versus daily in proximal femur BMD. Serum concentrations of the biochemical marker of bone resorption C-telopeptide of the alpha-chain of type I collagen were reduced to a similar extent in all treatment arms (53.4%-59.9%). The tolerability profile of the IV regimens was similar to that observed with daily oral therapy.Ibandronate IV injections are an effective and well tolerated treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis and provide a useful alternative to oral dosing.

Background: Exposure to harsh parenting and children's skills in ‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM) show independent and interacting associations with problem behaviors at age 2 (Hughes & Ensor, 2006). This study examined whether these age-2 measures also predict age-4 problem behaviors. Method: In a socially diverse sample (N = 120), multi-informant, multi-measure, multi-setting ratings indexed problem behaviors at ages 2, 3 and 4; children completed both ToM and verbal-ability tasks at age 2, while video-based ratings of maternal negative affect and control within dyadic mother-child play indexed harsh parenting. Results: Age-2 harsh parenting and ToM were independent and interacting predictors of age-4 problem behaviors, even with age-2 problem behaviors, verbal ability and social disadvantage all controlled. The interaction between harsh parenting and ToM distinguished persistent vs. diminishing problem behaviors. Conclusions: Both child and family characteristics predict increases in problem behaviors from 2 to 4; adverse effects of harsh parenting are attenuated for children with good ToM skills.

In 1996, two factors combined to shape the present work of the nurse practitioner in chronic pain. Firstly, the tide of change within the NHS carried "skill mix" to a position of prominence in many specialties and the time was right to explore the role of nurse practitioner in chronic pain management within the department of anaesthetics. Secondly, I had an enforced change of career. Whilst employed as a Sister on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, I tested positive to methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) after caring for an MRSA-infected patient. This subsequently proved difficult to treat, and my sixteen-year career as an intensive care nurse ended for what seemed like the foreseeable future. What follows is a description of a job in evolution which, as there are no footprints to follow, is necessarily quite personal.

SummaryThe Streptomyces clavuligerus clavam gene cluster was examined to identify genes specifically involved in 5S clavam biosynthesis. A reduction/loss of 5S clavam production was seen in cvm2 and cvm5 gene mutants, and a clavam metabolite not previously observed, 2-carboxymethylideneclavam, accumulated in the cvm5 mutant. Disruption of additional genes from the region of the clavam cluster did not have any effect on 5S clavam production. Examination of the paralog gene cluster region for 5S clavam biosynthetic genes led to the identification of cvm6P and cvm7P, which encode a putative aminotransferase and a transcriptional regulator, respectively. Mutants defective in cvm6P and cvm7P were completely blocked in 5S clavam but not clavulanic acid production. The loss of 5S clavam production in cvm7P mutants suggests that this gene encodes a transcriptional regulator specific for 5S clavam metabolite biosynthesis.

Background: Cognitive and family factors are implicated in the origins of behavioural problems, but little is known about their independence or interplay. Methods: We present data from 127 two-year-olds from predominantly disadvantaged families who completed tests of ‘theory of mind’ (ToM), executive function (EF) and verbal ability. Researchers’ home-visit ratings and detailed video-based coding of mother–child interactions were combined to give an aggregate measure of harsh parenting, while behavioural problems were indexed by a multi-informant, multi-setting, multi-measure aggregate. Results: Harsh parenting and deficits in ToM and verbal ability each predicted unique variance in behavioural problems; independent effects of EF were only marginally significant. Harsh parenting and ToM interacted significantly in their effects on behavioural problems. Conclusions: Child and family influences on behavioural problems should be considered in tandem, as they show significant interplay; in particular, advanced ToM skills appear to buffer young children against effects of harsh parenting.

(3R,5R)-Clavulanic acid, a clinically used inhibitor of serine beta-lactamases, is produced by fermentation of Streptomyces clavuligerus. The early steps in clavulanic acid biosynthesis leading to the bicyclic beta-lactam intermediate (3S,5S)-clavaminic acid have been defined. However, the mechanism by which (3S,5S)-clavaminic acid is converted to the penultimate intermediate (3R,5R)-clavaldehyde is unclear. Disruption of orf15 or orf16, of the clavulanic acid biosynthesis gene cluster, blocks clavulanic acid production and leads to the accumulation of N-acetyl-glycyl-clavaminic acid and N-glycyl-clavaminic acid, suggesting that these compounds are intermediates in the pathway. Two alternative start codons have been proposed for orf17 to encode for two possible polypeptides, one of which has 92 N-terminal residues less then the other. The shorter version of orf17 was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli and purified as a monomeric protein. Sequence analyses predicting the ORF17 protein to be a member of the ATP-grasp fold superfamily were supported by soft ionization mass spectrometric analyses that demonstrated binding of ATP to the ORF17 protein. Semisynthetic clavaminic acid, prepared by in vitro reconstitution of the biosynthetic pathway from the synthetically accessible intermediate proclavaminic acid, was shown by mass spectrometric analyses to be converted to N-glycyl-clavaminic acid in the presence of ORF17, ATP, and glycine. Under the same conditions N-acetyl-glycine and clavaminic acid were not converted to N-acetyl-glycyl-clavaminic acid. The specificity of ORF17 as an N-glycyl-clavaminic acid synthetase, together with the reported accumulation of N-glycyl-clavaminic acid in orf15 and orf16 disruption mutants, suggested that N-glycyl-clavaminic acid is an intermediate in clavulanic acid biosynthesis.

Although numerous studies of preschoolers report robust associations between performance on tests of executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM), a lack of developmentally appropriate tasks so far has limited research on these cognitive skills in younger children. Here, we present new batteries of EF and ToM tasks that were administered to 140 two-year-olds from predominantly disadvantaged families, with analyses based on 129 children. Our results showed a strong association between EF and ToM, which remained significant when effects of verbal ability were controlled. Individual differences in EF and ToM were also examined in relation to both distal family factors (social disadvantage, number of siblings) and proximal family factors (quality of child's relationships with parents and siblings). Social disadvantage predicted significant variance in both EF and ToM but did not contribute to the association between these domains. Associations between positive parent-child relationships and both EF and ToM were nonsignificant when verbal ability was controlled. In contrast, positive sibling relationships predicted significant variance in ToM, even controlling for age, verbal ability, EF, social disadvantage, and parent-child relationships.

Once-monthly (50/50, 100, and 150 mg) and daily (2.5 mg; 3-year vertebral fracture risk reduction: 52%) oral ibandronate regimens were compared in 1609 women with postmenopausal osteoporosis. At least equivalent efficacy and similar safety and tolerability were shown after 1 year.Suboptimal adherence to daily and weekly oral bisphosphonates can potentially compromise therapeutic outcomes in postmenopausal osteoporosis. Although yet to be prospectively shown in osteoporosis, evidence from randomized clinical trials in several other chronic conditions shows that reducing dosing frequency enhances therapeutic adherence. Ibandronate is a new and potent bisphosphonate with antifracture efficacy proven for daily administration and also intermittent administration with a dose-free interval of2 months. This report presents comparative data on the efficacy and safety of monthly and daily oral ibandronate regimens.MOBILE is a 2-year, randomized, double-blind, phase III, noninferiority trial. A total of 1609 women with postmenopausal osteoporosis were assigned to one of four oral ibandronate regimens: 2.5 mg daily, 50 mg/50 mg monthly (single doses, consecutive days), 100 mg monthly, or 150 mg monthly.After 1 year, lumbar spine BMD increased by 3.9%, 4.3%, 4.1%, and 4.9% in the 2.5, 50 /50, 100, and 150 mg arms, respectively. All monthly regimens were proven noninferior, and the 150 mg regimen superior, to the daily regimen. All monthly regimens produced similar hip BMD gains, which were larger than those with the daily regimen. All regimens similarly decreased serum levels of C-telopeptide, a biochemical marker of bone resorption. Compared with the daily regimen, a significantly larger proportion of women receiving the 100 and 150 mg monthly regimens achieved predefined threshold levels for percent change from baseline in lumbar spine (6%) or total hip BMD (3%). All regimens were similarly well tolerated.Monthly ibandronate is at least as effective and well tolerated as the currently approved daily ibandronate regimen in postmenopausal osteoporosis.

Previous studies show that the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and lower intelligence quotient (IQ) covary in children. We investigated the aetiology of this association in a large population-based sample of 5-year-old twins. The twins were individually assessed on an IQ test, and data on ADHD symptoms were obtained from mother interviews and teacher ratings. Confirming previous studies, the phenotypic correlation between ADHD symptom scores and IQ was -0.3 and, in a categorical analysis, children with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) ADHD research diagnosis obtained IQ scores nine points lower, on average, than comparison children. We show here that the co-occurrence of ADHD and lower IQ has genetic origins: 86% of the association between ADHD symptom scores and IQ, and 100% of the association between ADHD diagnosis and IQ, was accounted for by genetic influences that are shared by ADHD and IQ. Some candidate genes for ADHD could also contribute to variation in IQ or vice versa.

Purpose. To quantitatively assess the staining of Marx’s line with lissamine green dye. Methods. Forty white (European) subjects, aged 18 to 78 years, were assessed. The subjects had no major eye disease, although some had mild to moderate blepharitis. Lissamine green dye strips were used to stain the marginal zone of the palpebral conjunctiva, and high-magnification photo slit lamp images were taken of the everted upper eyelid along with a scale rule. From prints at 1600×, the distances between the main tarsal (Meibomian) gland orifices, the width of the lissamine green-stained Marx’s line, and the location of its anterior border were measured. Results. The group-mean distance between the main tarsal gland orifices was 0.81 ± 0 16 mm, whereas the width of the lissamine green-stained line was 0.10 ± 0.09 mm. In most subjects, the lissamine green-stained line was posterior to the tarsal gland orifices, and the location of the proximal (anterior) edge of this line averaged +0.13 mm from a reference line drawn through the orifices. Conclusion. Lissamine green dye highlights a very distinct line of cells along the marginal zone. This line of cells is narrow and is thought to be the natural site of frictional contact between the eyelid margin and the surfaces of the bulbar conjunctiva and cornea, rather than the edge of the tear meniscus or location of the edge of the lacrimal river.

We determined the efficacy of postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) and treatment of ill index cases with oseltamivir, in an attempt to prevent influenza transmission in households, in a study conducted in 277 households with 298 index cases (62% with laboratory-confirmed influenza) and 812 contacts aged ≥1 year. Contacts were randomized by household to receive treatment (5 days; n = 402), if illness developed, or PEP for 10 days (n = 410), and the number of households with at least 1 contact developing laboratory-confirmed influenza was measured. PEP provided a protective efficacy of 58.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.6%-79.6%; P =.0114) for households against proven influenza and 68.0% (95% CI, 34.9%-84.2%; P =.0017) for individual contacts, compared with treatment of index cases alone. No oseltamivir-resistant variants were detected in treated index cases or contacts. PEP of household contacts of those with influenza reduces the secondary spread of influenza in families when the initial household case is treated.

A tendency to focus on details at the expense of configural information, ‘weak coherence’, has been proposed as a cognitive style in autism. In the present study we tested whether weak coherence might be the result of executive dysfunction, by testing clinical groups known to show deficits on tests of executive control. Boys with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were compared with age– and intelligence quotient (IQ)–matched boys with attention–deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and typically developing (TD) boys, on a drawing task requiring planning for the inclusion of a new element. Weak coherence was measured through analysis of drawing style. In line with the predictions made, the ASD group was more detail–focused in their drawings than were either ADHD or TD boys. The ASD and ADHD groups both showed planning impairments, which were more severe in the former group. Poor planning did not, however, predict detail–focus, and scores on the two aspects of the task were unrelated in the clinical groups. These findings indicate that weak coherence may indeed be a cognitive style specific to autism and unrelated to cognitive deficits in frontal functions.

In a population-based infant vision screening programme, 5295 infants were screened and those with significant refractive errors were followed up. To assess the relationship between the development of vision and other domains, we report a longitudinal study comparing infants with significant hyperopia, identified at age 9 months ('hyperopes') with infants with normal refractions ('controls'). Children are included who completed at each age a broad set of visual, cognitive, motor and language measures taken over a series of follow-up visits up to age 5.5 years. Hyperopes performed significantly worse than controls on the Atkinson Battery of Child Development for Examining Functional Vision at 14 months and 3.5 years and the Henderson Movement Assessment Battery for Children at 3.5 and 5.5 years. The Griffiths Child Development Scales, MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory and British Picture Vocabulary Scales showed no significant differences. Exclusion of those infants who became amblyopic and strabismic did not substantially alter these results, suggesting that the differences between groups were not a consequence of these disorders. These results indicate that early hyperopia is associated with a range of developmental deficits that persist at least to age 5.5 years. These effects are concentrated in visuocognitive and visuomotor domains rather than the linguistic domain.

BACKGROUND: This paper describes the circumstances of contemporary young mothers and their children from a nationally representative sample, and compares them to the circumstances of mothers who delayed childbearing beyond age 20. METHODS: The participants are members of the Environmental Risk (E-risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which follows an epidemiological sample of 1,116 women who became mothers in England and Wales in 1994-95, and their children, and contains an over-sample of young mothers. Home visits were conducted when the children were aged 5 years. Data were collected from mothers via interviews, from children via experimental tasks and observations, and from teachers via postal questionnaires. RESULTS: Young mothers encountered more socio-economic deprivation, had significantly less human and social capital, and experienced more mental health difficulties. Their partners were less reliable and supportive, both economically and emotionally, and were more antisocial and abusive. The children of young mothers showed reduced educational attainment, were rated by multiple informants as having more emotional and behavioural problems, were at increased risk of maltreatment or harm, and showed higher rates of illnesses, accidents, and injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Young mothers today face difficulties known to have long-lasting effects for women and their children. Preventions that target young mothers may reduce harm to the physical health, mental health, and social status of future generations.

Background: This study focuses on a novel observational paradigm (SNAP) involving a rigged competitive card game (Murray, Woolgar, Cooper, & Hipwell, 2001) designed to expose children to the threat of losing. Recent work suggests that this paradigm is useful for assessing disruptive behaviour in young children (Hughes, Cutting, & Dunn, 2001). Method: We report on a large study (involving 800 five-year-olds) that compares observational ratings of disruptive behaviour on the SNAP game with mother and teacher reports of externalising behaviour on the CBCL and TRF (Achenbach, 1991a, 1991b). To ensure independence of data, playmates were randomly assigned to two different sub-samples. The validity of this rigged game for examining individual differences in disruptive behaviour was supported (in both sub-samples) by modest but significant correlations with both mother and teacher ratings of externalising problems, and by significantly elevated SNAP ratings among children rated by mothers and teachers as showing extreme (≥95 th %) levels of externalising problems, compared with the remaining majority of children. Results: Significant gender differences in disruptive behaviour were found on all three measures: observational SNAP ratings and mother/teacher questionnaire ratings. Factors that may contribute to this gender difference are discussed. Conclusions: Our findings emphasise the importance of multi-method, multi-informant measures of disruptive behaviour, and suggest that the rigged card game used in this study is a valuable adjunct to more standard methods of rating disruptive behaviour.

The clinically used beta-lactamase inhibitor clavulanic acid is produced by fermentation of Streptomyces clavuligerus. The orf6 gene of the clavulanic acid biosynthetic gene cluster in S. clavuligerus encodes a protein that shows sequence homology to ornithine acetyltransferase (OAT), the fifth enzyme of the arginine biosynthetic pathway. Orf6 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli (at approximately 15% of total soluble protein by SDS/PAGE analysis) indicating it was not toxic to the host cells. The recombinant protein was purified (to95% purity) by a one-step technique. Like other OATs it was synthesized as a precursor protein which underwent autocatalytic internal cleavage in E. coli to generate alpha and beta subunits. Cleavage was shown to occur between the alanine and threonine residues in a KGXGMXXPX--(M/L)AT (M/L)L motif conserved within all identified OAT sequences. Gel filtration and native electrophoresis analyses implied that the ORF6 protein was an alpha2beta2 heterotetramer and direct evidence for this came from mass spectrometric analyses. Although anomalous migration of the beta subunit was observed by standard SDS/PAGE analysis, which indicated the presence of two bands (as previously observed for other OATs), mass spectrometric analyses did not reveal any evidence for post-translational modification of the beta subunit. Extended denaturation with SDS before PAGE resulted in observation of a single major beta subunit band. Purified ORF6 was able to catalyse the reversible transfer of an acetyl group from N-acetylornithine to glutamate, but not the formation of N-acetylglutamate from glutamate and acetyl-coenzyme A, nor (detectably) the hydrolysis of N-acetylornithine. Mass spectrometry also revealed the reaction proceeds via acetylation of the beta subunit.

Neural respiratory drive (NRD), measured using the parasternal intercostal muscle electromyogram (EMGpara), relates to lung disease severity as quantified by conventional methods in a range of diseases. Reference data from healthy populations are required for the technique to be used as an independent measure of lung disease severity. EMGpara has previously been expressed as a percentage of that obtained during a maximal inspiratory effort (EMGpara%max), restricting the use of the technique to subjects able to reliably perform such manoeuvres. The aim of this study was to investigate variability of both raw EMGpara (rEMGpara) and EMGpara%max in healthy adults. EMGpara was measured during tidal breathing in 43 healthy adult non-smokers (25 females, median (range) age 32 (19–79)years, mean (SD) BMI 23.4 (3.5) kg/m 2 ), using surface electrodes positioned bilaterally over the second interchondral space. Measurements were made with and without a mouthpiece/pneumotachograph in situ in 20 participants. Repeated measures were obtained within the same testing session in 27 subjects, and at least seven days later in 13 individuals. Spirometry, height, weight, BMI, fat free mass (FFM) via bioelectrical impedance and measures of regional fat distribution (waist/hip ratio and neck circumference) were also recorded. Mean (SD) EMGpara%max and rEMGpara were 5.88 (3.63)% and 5.06 (2.26)µV respectively. Significant relationships were observed between anthropometric measures and rEMGpara and EMGpara%max (Table 1). rEMGpara and EMGpara%max were unrelated to spirometry variables. Median (range) rEMGpara and EMGpara%max increased significantly with the pneumotachograph in place (4.86 (2.11–8.19)µV versus 5.62 (2.47–10.98) µV and 4.77(1.68–17.00)% versus 6.78 (2.35–20.94)%, both p Analysis of variance by subject was used to assess within-subject variability. Measurement error was higher for EMGpara%max than rEMGpara (upper 95% confidence limit of difference between repeat measures of EMGpara%max 3.14%, versus 2.35 µV for rEMGpara; within-subject coefficient of variation EMGpara%max 30.8% versus rEMGpara 24.5%). rEMGpara appears to be a reproducible marker of NRD. Both rEMGpara and EMGpara%max are influenced by subjects’ anthropometry. Further investigation is required to determine whether these influences are technical or physiological and must be considered when the technique is applied clinically or for research, or when developing reference values.

Cephamycin C production was blocked in wild-type cultures of the clavulanic acid-producing organism Streptomyces clavuligerus by targeted disruption of the gene ( lat ) encoding lysine ɛ-aminotransferase. Specific production of clavulanic acid increased in the lat mutants derived from the wild-type strain by 2- to 2.5-fold. Similar beneficial effects on clavulanic acid production were noted in previous studies when gene disruption was used to block the production of the non-clavulanic acid clavams produced by S. clavuligerus . Therefore, mutations in lat and in cvm1 , a gene involved in clavam production, were introduced into a high-titer industrial strain of S. clavuligerus to create a double mutant with defects in production of both cephamycin C and clavams. Production of both cephamycin C and non-clavulanic acid clavams was eliminated in the double mutant, and clavulanic acid titers increased about 10% relative to those of the parental strain. This represents the first report of the successful use of genetic engineering to eliminate undesirable metabolic pathways in an industrial strain used for the production of an antibiotic important in human medicine.

This study is the first to provide direct observations of dyadic interactions with friends for preschool-aged disruptive children. Forty preschoolers (mean age 52 months) rated by parents as "hard to manage" on Goodman's (1997) Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), as well as 40 control children (matched for age, gender, school, and ethnic background) were filmed for 20 minutes on two occasions playing with a teacher-nominated best friend. The videos were transcribed and coded for antisocial behaviour, displays of negative emotion, and empathic/prosocial responses to friend's distress. Individual differences in social behaviour were considered in relation to false-belief performance, affective perspective taking, and executive function skills (planning and inhibitory control). Compared with controls, the hard-to-manage group showed significantly higher rates of both antisocial behaviour and displays of negative emotion, as well as significantly lower rates of emphatic/prosocial responses. Across both groups combined, frequencies of angry and antisocial behaviours were related to poor executive control. Mental-state understanding was not significantly correlated with antisocial behaviour, emotion display, or empathy, suggesting that the interpersonal problems of young disruptive children owe more to failure of behavioural regulation than to problems in social understanding per se. However, given the relatively low power of the study, these findings require replication with a larger sample.

It is widely recognised that impaired social relations are characteristic of school-aged children with behavioural disorders, and predict a poor long-term outcome (Parker & Asher, 1987). However, little is known about the early antecedents of social impairment in behaviourally disturbed children. The aim of the present study was to explore three areas of potential dysfunction in younger children: theory of mind, emotion understanding, and executive function. Forty preschoolers, rated by their parents on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1994) as “hard to manage” (H2M) were compared with a control group on a set of: (1) theory of mind tasks (including an emotion prediction task involving either a nice or a nasty surprise); (2) emotion understanding stories (that required affective perspective-taking skills as well as situational understanding); and (3) simple executive function tasks (adapted for preschoolers, and tapping inhibitory control, attentional set-shifting, and working memory). Small but significant group differences were found in all three cognitive domains. In particular, hard-to-manage preschoolers showed poor understanding of emotion and executive control, poor prediction or recall of a false belief, and better understanding of the belief-dependency of emotion in the context of a trick than a treat. Moreover, executive function was associated with performance on the theory of mind tasks for the hard-to-manage group alone, suggesting both direct and indirect links between executive dysfunction and disruptive behaviour.

Developmental changes in children's understanding of mind and emotion and their mental-state talk in conversations with friends were examined in a longitudinal study of 50 children (M age at each time point = 3 years 11 months, 4 years 6 months, 5 years 0 months). Significant and related improvements over time were found for both theory-of-mind task performance and affective perspective taking. Associated with these cognitive developments were quantitative and qualitative changes in children's references to mental states in their conversations with friends. Individual differences in theory of mind, emotion understanding, and mental-state talk were strikingly stable over the 13-month period. Although there were no gender differences in children's task performances, girls showed more frequent and more developed mental-state talk than boys.

Background. Previous studies have shown that individuals with autism show impaired performance on tests of executive function (Ozonoff et al. 1991, 1993; Hughes & Russell, 1993; Hughes et al. 1994). There is also strong evidence for genetic involvement in autism (see Rutter, 1991 for review). If executive dysfunction is a core impairment in autism, then similar impairments are hypothesized to exist in a subtler form among the parents of autistic children.Methods. Forty parents of autistic children were compared with 40 parents of learning disabled children and 36 adults from unaffected families on three computerized tests of executive function. These tasks tapped attentional-shifting skills, visuospatial planning and working memory. Participants also received a computerized control test of spatial memory-span. In addition, the interviewer's initial impressions of family members were coded using a new 33-item questionnaire.Results. A significant proportion of parents of autistic children (especially fathers) showed impaired executive function. By contrast, parents did as well as both comparison groups on a control test of spatial span, and on other ‘non-executive’ measures from the tasks, indicating that the autism group were as able and motivated as comparison groups. Interestingly, impairment of executive function was significantly correlated with the interviewer's pre-test impression of social abnormality among parents of autistic children.Conclusions. The hypothesis that a significant proportion of parents of autistic children show impaired executive function was supported. Parents showed good memory ability, but relatively poor planning skills and attentional flexibility. The extent to which this is an inherent trait in family members, rather than a reflection of the difficulties involved in caring for an autistic child, remains to be examined.

A group of young people with autism (ranging in ability from high functioning to moderately learning disabled), and ability-matched control groups of (i) non-autistic individuals with moderate learning disabilities, and (ii) normally developing children, were presented with two tests of executive function: the Intra-dimensional/Extra-dimensional set-shifting task and the Tower of London planning task. These tests were graded in difficulty and included internal control measures. On each task, the autistic group was differentially impaired with respect to both control groups. Moreover, this impairment was specific to the stages of each task which placed greatest demands upon executive control. This evidence for executive dysfunction in autism is discussed in the context of Norman and Shallice's (Centre for Human Information Processing Technical Report 99, 1980) "Supervisory Attentional System" model of frontal function.

Environmental Context. The alkyl nitrates are a group of organic compounds that are known to be produced naturally in seawater. The sea-to-air flux of alkyl nitrates is believed to contribute significantly to the ‘odd nitrogen’ reservoir of the atmosphere and to play an important role in regulating tropospheric ozone levels in remote marine regions. Here we expand our knowledge of alkyl nitrate concentration distributions and saturation anomalies to Southern Ocean waters. Abstract. We report the first coupled atmosphere and seawater alkyl nitrate measurements for the Southern Ocean in the area bounded by 36–65°S, 30–70°W (November/December, 2004). Methyl and ethyl nitrate concentrations in seawater were 3.1–194.9 and 0.3–71.8 pmol L–1, respectively. Atmospheric mixing ratios ranged from 1.0 to 71.5 ppt for methyl nitrate and 0.6 to 16.6 ppt for ethyl nitrate. No correlations between alkyl nitrate distributions, and sea surface temperature, windspeed or chlorophyll a were observed. However, methyl and ethyl nitrate were well correlated in both the air and seawater, which suggests a common source. Calculations based on these observations estimate median saturation anomalies of –40% (–95 to 220%) for methyl nitrate and –11% (–98 to 174%) for ethyl nitrate. Positive saturation anomalies were spatially patchy, which suggests that some methyl and ethyl nitrate production was taking place in isolated areas of the study region. Overall our negative median saturation anomaly values suggest that during late austral spring (2004) the region of the Southern Ocean in which our measurements were made was not a net source of methyl or ethyl nitrate to the atmosphere. These results reinforce previous findings which suggest that whilst the equatorial ocean is a major source of methyl and ethyl nitrates to the atmosphere, higher latitude waters are generally at equilibrium or under-saturated. More measurements are required to assess how representative our results are of other areas of the Southern Ocean.

Food intakes of nearly all of fifty-two infants, two to nine months of age, met at least two-thirds of the recommended allowances for nutrients except for iron. Sodium intakes were, for the most part, above the requirement for growth and for some infants approached or exceeded suggested maximum levels. The possible relationship of sodium intake in infancy to hypertension in later life is discussed.

We investigated the influence of high light stress on iodocarbon release by three species of marine phytoplankton from different algal classes: the prymnesiophyte Emiliania huxleyi, the prasinophyte Tetraselmis sp., and the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. Despite a pronounced decrease in the fluorescence-based maximum quantum yield for photosystem II (F v /F m ), increased iodocarbon release relative to lower light controls was not observed in any of the experiments performed. These findings do not support the hypothesis that upper-ocean iodocarbon concentrations are influenced by light-induced algal stress.

In this study of the origins of individual differences in theory of mind (ToM), the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study sample of 1,116 sixty-month-old twin pairs completed a comprehensive battery of ToM tasks. Individual differences in ToM were striking and strongly associated with verbal ability. Behavioral genetic models of the data showed that environmental factors explained the majority of the variance in ToM performance in this sample. Shared environmental influences on verbal ability had a common impact on ToM and explained more than half the phenotypic correlation between these two skills. Possible underlying proximal mechanisms are discussed, including maternal speech and mind-mindedness, sibling interactions, and peer influences.

The present study explores relations between young children’s understanding of mind and parental emotional expression and disciplinary style, along with gender differences in these relations. Participants were recruited from a study of 125 same-sex twin-pairs (58% female; group mean age 5 43 months, SD 5 1 month). Each child received a comprehensive set of theory-of-mind tasks, and was filmed at home for 20 minutes in dyadic interactions with the primary caregiver, who was also interviewed about disciplinary strategies. Ratings of discipline and positive and negative parental affect and control were made from direct observation, from the interview, and from the videoed interactions. Strong correlations were found between family SES, parenting measures, and child verbal IQ and theory-of-mind score. However, regression analyses showed that parental behaviours were significant predictors of children’s theory-of-mind performance, even when sex, verbal IQ and family SES were taken into account. Sex differences in these relations were also identified; parental affect was especially salient for understanding of mind in girls, while discipline was more salient for boys. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of individual differences in the proximal processes associated with early understanding of mind, and suggest that development in mental-state awareness is associated with distinct aspects of parenting for girls and boys.

Fifty preschool children (mean age 3:11 years) took part in an investigation of the relations between children's executive function performance, their understanding of mind and their language skills. The study demonstrates the feasibility of testing rudimentary executive function skills among preschoolers, using an original battery of tasks. The results were consistent with those from studies of older children (e.g. Welsh, Pennington & Groisser, 1991), in that three aspects of executive function were distinguished: working memory, attentional flexibility and inhibitory control. In addition, specific links were found between executive function and theory-of-mind performance, even when age and both verbal and non-verbal ability were taken into account. In particular, children's deceptive abilities were closely related to success on tests of inhibitory control. The implications of these results for our understanding of deceit are discussed.

Fifty preschoolers (mean age = 47 months; SD = 5 months) were recruited from local inner-city nurseries to take part in a study of early friendships and the development of social understanding. Friendship pairs (10 boy-boy pairs; 10 girl-girl pairs and 5 boy-girl pairs) were filmed playing together for 20 minutes in a quiet room supplied with toys and dressing-up materials. The videos were then transcribed and coded for mental-state talk and pretend play. The children were also given a battery of tests tapping theory-of-mind skills and verbal ability. The results indicated a strong association between children's engagement in pretend play, and the frequency and nature of mental-state talk. This association is discussed in relation to (1) effects of context, (2) individual differences in children's understanding of mind and verbal ability, and (3) the social nature of pretend play.

Disruptive children have long been thought to show hedonistic rather than empathic attitudes to moral dilemmas, but accounts of what underlies this stance vary in different theoretical perspectives. Candidate factors include: general problems in verbal reasoning, specific delays in social understanding, reduced affective responsiveness and control, and negative parental influences. The present study is novel in examining each of these factors in a preschool-aged sample of disruptive children. In addition, interview assessments of moral awareness were compared with real-life observations of peer interactions to examine the ecological validity of such tasks. The study is also unusual in adopting a longitudinal design: the stability of group differences in moral awareness and its correlates was examined across a 2-year period spanning the transition to school. At age 4, 40 hard-to-manage children and their typically developing peers received a moral judgments and justifications interview and were filmed playing with a friend (Slomkowski & Killen, 1992). At age 6, the two groups completed a moral-stories task (Arsenio & Fleiss, 1996). Significant group differences were found at both time points; these differences showed stable relations with each of the correlates above, although the relation between interview measures of moral awareness and real-life behaviour was rather more complex. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that disruptive children show early and multi-faceted problems in socio-moral reasoning, that are associated with difficulties in their family and peer relationships.