Adult perception of emotion intensity in human infant cries: effects of infant age and cry acoustics.

The relation between adult perception of emotion intensity in the cries of 1- and 6-month-old infants and the acoustic characteristics of the cries was examined. In the first study, adults who were inexperienced in child care rated 40 cries on 3 emotion intensity scales: anger, fear, and distress. The cries of 6-month-olds were rated as being significantly more intense. Different acoustic variables accounted for emotion intensity ratings for the 2 infant ages. Peak amplitude and noisiness of the cry predicted adult judgments of intensity ratings of 1-month-olds' cries; a measure of amplitude ratio (in 2 frequency bands) was the best predictor of intensity ratings of 6-month-olds' cries. In the second study, parents of infants rated the same cries on the same scales. They also rated the older infants' cries as being more intense. The 2 adult groups did not differ on their ratings, and a regression equation derived from one adult group predicted the other adult group's rating of the same infant age better than it predicted its own ratings for the other infant age. Infant age, and its associated acoustic features, seems to be a more important determinant of adults' perception of emotion intensity than are such adult characteristics as gender or infant-care experience.

Relation between food preference and food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia).

We report the results of 2 studies on food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia). First, we investigated the preferences of 10 golden lion tamarins for 6 foods. Tamarins prefer mealworms and raisins significantly more than apple, egg, carrot, or marmoset diet. Food preference rank was significantly and positively correlated with the rank of latency to choose a particular food. Second, we investigated the relation between food preference and 15 vocal parameters measured from the calls emitted by 5 tamarins to a subset of the foods. Only 1 parameter was significantly correlated with food preference across animals. Within-subjects multivariate analysis of variance showed that the vocalizations to foods are significantly different. Our results support an hypothesis that food-elicited vocalizations vary in ways that correspond to the caller's preference but not in a manner that labels food type.

Sex differences in vocal structure in a callitrichid primate, Leontopithecus rosalia.

Four types of calls (long calls, chirps, chucks, and trills) from Golden Lion Tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) were analyzed for sex differences in structure. Six or more acoustic variables were analyzed for each call type. One or more variables from each call category differed significantly between the sexes. In addition, discriminant function analyses were conducted on male vs. female data for each call type. Long calls, chirps, and chucks from males and females were quite discriminable, but trills were not. That these differences exist is surprising given that callitrichid primates are otherwise quite monomorphic in structure and behavior. Possible functions served by sex differences in call structure include group censusing or assessing the sex of transient individuals.

[Contribution to the diagnosis of gonorrhea (author's transl)]. / Beitrag zur Gonorrhödiagnostik

The culture is the optimal procedure for the diagnosis of gonorrhea in the female and should be used in every suspicious case. The percentage of loss through use of a transport medium (Stuart) and by submitting the specimen to a central laboratory for examination affects the results. For this reason a simple procedure was tested based on Chapin's candle-flame method and using Martin and Thayer's selective culture medium. This method can be used in every laboratory. The described procedure requires little more work than Gram's method. In our test series, a higher percentage of positive results were obtained with this method than with the microscopic diagnosis and the transport medium.

[Bladder stones as a complication of gynecologic surgery]. / Blasensteine als Komplikation nach gynäkologischen Operationen

Two cases of urinary bladder-stone-formation after surgical treatment of a prolapsed uterus and an uterus-antefixation according to Kocher are reported. In both cases of synthetic, non absorbable suture was found. The patients suffered for several years from pollakisuria and dysuria although laboratory findings on the urine sediment were at least in an early stage not suspicious. The presence of urinary-bladder-stones was verified cystoscopically and the clinical symptomatology ceased promptly after removal of the concrements. Although formation of bladder-stone as described above seems to be quite rare, it should be prevented by the exclusive use of absorbable material in sutures in the region of the urinary bladder.

[Induction of ovulation with Epimestrol (author's transl)]. / Epimestrol--eine ovulationsauslösende Substanz

Epimestrol 5 mg. daily for 10 days was administered in 119 treatment cycles to 21 women with normal gonadotropins and 33 ovulations were induced. Of the 21 patients, 7 had secondary amenorrhea, 10 had anovulatory oligomenorrhea and 4 had ovulatory oligomenorrhea. 17 patients desired pregnancies and 6 became pregnant. There was 1 pregnancy among 5 women with secondary amenorrhea. There were 3 pregnancies among 9 patients with anovulatory oligomenorrhea and 2 pregnancies in 3 patients with ovulatory oligomenorrhea. The pregnancy rate was 35%. Side effects were not observed.