quantum field theory and the linguistic minimalist program a remarkable isomorphism

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The biological nature of human language

Theoretical and Experimental Linguistic

Consanguineous marriages and endemic malaria: can inbreeding increase population fitness?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The practice of consanguineous marriages is widespread in countries with endemic malaria. In these regions, consanguinity increases the prevalence of α⁺-thalassemia, which is protective against malaria. However, it also causes an excessive mortality amongst the offspring due to an increase in homozygosis of recessive lethal alleles. The aim of this study was to explore the overall effects of inbreeding on the fitness of a population infested with malaria.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a stochastic computer model of population growth, the sizes of inbred and outbred populations were compared. The model has been previously validated producing results for inbred populations that have agreed with analytical predictions. Survival likelihoods for different α⁺-thalassemia genotypes were obtained from the odds of severe forms of disease from a field study. Survivals were further estimated for different values of mortality from malaria.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Inbreeding increases the frequency of α⁺-thalassemia allele and the loss of life due to homozygosis of recessive lethal alleles; both are proportional to the coefficient of inbreeding and the frequency of alleles in population. Inbreeding-mediated decrease in mortality from malaria (produced via enhanced α⁺-thalassemia frequency) mitigates inbreeding-related increases in fatality (produced via increased homozygosity of recessive lethals). When the death rate due to malaria is high, the net effect of inbreeding is a reduction in the overall mortality of the population.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Consanguineous marriages may increase the overall fitness of populations with endemic malaria.</p

The effect of social content on deductive reasoning: An fMRI study

Abstract: Psychological studies of deductive reasoning have shown that subjects ’ performance is affected significantly by the content of the presented stimuli. Specifically, subjects find it easier to reason about contexts and situations with a social content. In the present study, the effect of content on brain activation was investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects were solving two versions of the Wason selection task, which previous behavioral studies have shown to elicit a significant content effect. One version described an arbitrary relation between two actions (Descriptive: “If someone does …, then he does …”), whereas the other described an exchange of goods between two persons (Social-Exchange: “If you give me …, then I give you …”). Random-effect statistical analyses showed that compared to baseline, both tasks activated frontal medial cortex and left dorsolateral frontal and parietal regions, confirming the major role of the left hemisphere in deductive reasoning. In addition, although the two reasoning conditions were identical in logical form, the social-exchange task was also associated with right frontal and parietal activations, mirroring the left-sided activations common to both reasoning tasks. These results suggest that the recruitment of the right hemisphere is dependent on the content of th

The problem of meaning in generative grammar

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal