The acquisition of spatial constructions in American sign language and English

Spatial relations in American Sign Language (ASL) are often signed from the perspective of the signer and so involve a shift in perspective and mental rotation. This study examined developing knowledge of language used to refer to the spatial relations front, behind, left, right, towards, away, above, and below by children learning ASL and English. Because ASL is a classifier language in which noun referents are placed into groups, each spatial relation also appeared with person, animal, and vehicle classifiers. Twenty-three children and adults who learned ASL before the age of 5 years and 23 native English-speaking adults and children participated. Both language groups participated in a comprehension task in which they chose which of 2 pictures depicted a signed or spoken relation. Results showed that children learning ASL acquired the constructions for spatial relations that typically involve perspective shifts and mental rotation later than constructions that do not involve these abilities and later than English-speaking children. Children learning ASL did not differ from English-speaking children in learning constructions that did not involve these abilities. Results also suggest that users of ASL initially comprehend spatial relations more accurately with person and animal classifiers than with the classifier for vehicles. The results are relevant to understanding the acquisition of spatial relations in ASL.     

Anticancer effects of Chinese herbal medicine, science or myth？

Currently there is considerable interest among oncologists to find anticancer drugs in Chinese herbal medicine （CHM）. In the past, clinical data showed that some herbs possessed anticancer properties, but western scientists have doubted the scientific validity of CHM due to the lack of scientific evidence from their perspective. Recently there have been encouraging results, from a western perspective, in the cancer research field regarding the anticancer effects of CHM. Experiments showed that CHM played its anticancer role by inducing apoptosis and differentiation, enhancing the immune system, inhibiting angiogenesis, reversing multidrug resistance （MDR）, etc. Clinical trials demonstrated that CHM could improve survival, increase tumor response, improve quality of life, or reduce chemotherapy toxicity, although much remained to be determined regarding the objective effects of CHM in human in the context of clinical trials. Interestingly, both laboratory experiments and clinical trials have demonstrated that when combined with chemotherapy, CHM could raise the efficacy level and lower toxic reactions. These facts raised the feasibility of the combination of herbal medicines and chemotherapy, although much remained to be investigated in this area.