scholarly journals Inferring recent evolutionary changes in speech sounds

Author(s):  
Steven Moran ◽  
Nicholas A. Lester ◽  
Eitan Grossman

In this paper, we investigate evolutionarily recent changes in the distributions of speech sounds in the world's languages. In particular, we explore the impact of language contact in the past two millennia on today's distributions. Based on three extensive databases of phonological inventories, we analyse the discrepancies between the distribution of speech sounds of ancient and reconstructed languages, on the one hand, and those in present-day languages, on the other. Furthermore, we analyse the degree to which the diffusion of speech sounds via language contact played a role in these discrepancies. We find evidence for substantive differences between ancient and present-day distributions, as well as for the important role of language contact in shaping these distributions over time. Moreover, our findings suggest that the distributions of speech sounds across geographic macro-areas were homogenized to an observable extent in recent millennia. Our findings suggest that what we call the Implicit Uniformitarian Hypothesis, at least with respect to the composition of phonological inventories, cannot be held uncritically. Linguists who would like to draw inferences about human language based on present-day cross-linguistic distributions must consider their theories in light of even short-term language evolution. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.

Author(s):  
Paolo Simoni

The role of amateur cinema as archival material in Italian media productions has only recently been discovered. Italy, as opposed to other European countries, lacked a local, regional and national policy for the collection and preservation of private audiovisual documents, which led, as a result, to the inaccessibility of the sources. In 2002 the Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia (Italy’s Amateur Film Archive), founded in Bologna by the Home Movies Association, became the reference repository of home movies and amateur cinema, promoting the availability of a cultural heritage that had previously been neglected. Today, it preserves about 5,000 hours of footage, contributes to documentary film productions and acts as a cultural and production center. The impact factor of the Home Movies Archive on the Italian audiovisual scenario and the sustainable perspectives strengthen the awareness that amateur film offers new opportunities to discover and represent the past from a different perspective, the one of an eyewitness “from below”. The article overviews the European and Italian discovery of amateur cinema as historical source from the seventies, and some cases from the Italian panorama during the last fifteen years, which powerfully raised the attention on home movies and amateur archive material.


2018 ◽  
Vol 222 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-382
Author(s):  
Assist. T. Bashar Sabbar Odhaib

The depth in Islamic thought process, study and conscious study demonstrates and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Islam keep pace with the developments of life and alterations decade, the Koranic story of the most important methods used by Islam - in spite of the developments of life - to feed the minds and refinement of the soul, as well as the desired and purposeful recreation are open bars of inspiration when coexist with the events told by Aziz book, the fact that the Koranic story of the main doors of the Quranic statement, gramophone for standardization and promises and warnings through the virtues and morality, behavior and legislationThe study of Quranic stories in his statement and his proof of what holds the commandments of God  and the stories of the prophets and apostles, cast a shadow over the new young people behavior and work and manners.The goal of the study known as the effect of the dominant story on the conscience of the pupil, which cast a shadow over the realization value system and moral, without difficulty and in a manner interesting and fun, without prejudice to the decisions of the (Remember - talk - dogmas - biography) and the quest for a harmonious content of initial grades main goal is to influence the behavior of the pupil , linking overweight and a reflection of what is moral and religious stories to impart excellence for other lessonsThus Vaelloukov the importance of the study focused on the one hand that the Koranic story of the most modern methods, especially the primary grades because of its profound impact in creating a magnet in the classroom is different from other lessons, as well as the realization of the imagination the student through the perception of events in the past to assume the positive role of everything that goes on and it is played roles in a simple manner without imposing a style and forbidding, but the love of good characters and it wished to be a part in the events that have sought to serve the people and here lies the impact of the story in explaining to the student that the events are repeated, and here we should let actors as they who have gone before us in human entire service. Therefore, we will adopt a descriptive approach (theoretical study) after the statement of the story - what it is - as shown in the proven content _ and then take advantage of the Islamic heritage, especially books that talk about the reasons to get off and on the Commentary on Hadeeth and also wrote the Prophet's biography that talk about the biography of the prophets and the righteous.This study was at the forefront of the three chapters, the first chapter and the second contains three sections and chapter III includes five demands to the research methodology.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Kamlesh Kumar Shukla

FIIs are companies registered outside India. In the past four years there has been more than $41 trillion worth of FII funds invested in India. This has been one of the major reasons on the bull market witnessing unprecedented growth with the BSE Sensex rising 221% in absolute terms in this span. The present downfall of the market too is influenced as these FIIs are taking out some of their invested money. Though there is a lot of value in this market and fundamentally there is a lot of upside in it. For long-term value investors, there’s little because for worry but short term traders are adversely getting affected by the role of FIIs are playing at the present. Investors should not panic and should remain invested in sectors where underlying earnings growth has little to do with financial markets or global economy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Karolina Diallo

Pupil with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Over the past twenty years childhood OCD has received more attention than any other anxiety disorder that occurs in the childhood. The increasing interest and research in this area have led to increasing number of diagnoses of OCD in children and adolescents, which affects both specialists and teachers. Depending on the severity of symptoms OCD has a detrimental effect upon child's school performance, which can lead almost to the impossibility to concentrate on school and associated duties. This article is devoted to the obsessive-compulsive disorder and its specifics in children, focusing on the impact of this disorder on behaviour, experience and performance of the child in the school environment. It mentions how important is the role of the teacher in whose class the pupil with this diagnosis is and it points out that it is necessary to increase teachers' competence to identify children with OCD symptoms, to take the disease into the account, to adapt the course of teaching and to introduce such measures that could help children reduce the anxiety and maintain (or increase) the school performance within and in accordance with the school regulations and curriculum.


Author(s):  
Donald Bloxham

Against majority opinion within his profession, Donald Bloxham argues that it is legitimate, often unavoidable, and frequently important for historians to make value judgements about the past. History and Morality draws on a wide range of historical examples, and its author’s insights as a practising historian. Examining concepts like impartiality, neutrality, contextualization, and the use and abuse of the idea of the past as a foreign country, Bloxham’s book investigates how the discipline has got to the point where what is preached can be so inconsistent with what is practised. It illuminates how far tacit moral judgements infuse works of history, and how strange those histories would look if the judgements were removed. Bloxham argues that rather than trying to eradicate all judgemental elements from their work historians need to think more consistently about how, and with what justification, they make the judgements that they do. The importance of all this lies not just in the responsibilities that historians bear towards the past—responsibilities to take historical actors on those actors’ own terms and to portray the impact of those actors’ deeds—but also in the role of history as a source of identity, pride, and shame in the present. The account of moral thought in History and Morality has ramifications far beyond the activities of vocational historians.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110051
Author(s):  
Rashmi Gupta ◽  
Jemima Jacob ◽  
Gaurav Bansal

Psychosocial stressors and social disadvantages contribute to inequalities in opportunities and outcomes. In the current paper, we use an epidemiological perspective and highlight the role stress plays on individuals by reviewing the outcomes of major stressors such as poverty and unemployment. We further analyzed the psychological and physical cost of these stressors and their long-term impact. We examined the role of universal basic income and closely looked at income experiments that were implemented in the past, in terms of their effectiveness in enhancing the community as well as individual outcomes and propose the UBI as a tool for alleviating the impact of these stressors. At a time when a major pandemic (e.g., COVID-19) threatens economic stability and health globally, we believe the UBI is relevant now, more than ever.


1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 905-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold D. Clarke ◽  
Nitish Dutt

During the past two decades a four-item battery administered in biannual Euro-Barometer surveys has been used to measure changing value priorities in Western European countries. We provide evidence that the measure is seriously flawed. Pooled cross-sectional time series analyses for the 1976–86 period reveal that the Euro-Barometer postmaterialist-materialist value index and two of its components are very sensitive to short-term changes in economic conditions, and that the failure to include a statement about unemployment in the four-item values battery accounts for much of the apparent growth of postmaterialist values in several countries after 1980. The aggregate-level findings are buttressed by analyses of panel data from three countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 374 (1763) ◽  
pp. 20170405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather M. Kharouba ◽  
Jayme M. M. Lewthwaite ◽  
Rob Guralnick ◽  
Jeremy T. Kerr ◽  
Mark Vellend

Over the past two decades, natural history collections (NHCs) have played an increasingly prominent role in global change research, but they have still greater potential, especially for the most diverse group of animals on Earth: insects. Here, we review the role of NHCs in advancing our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary responses of insects to recent global changes. Insect NHCs have helped document changes in insects' geographical distributions, phenology, phenotypic and genotypic traits over time periods up to a century. Recent work demonstrates the enormous potential of NHCs data for examining insect responses at multiple temporal, spatial and phylogenetic scales. Moving forward, insect NHCs offer unique opportunities to examine the morphological, chemical and genomic information in each specimen, thus advancing our understanding of the processes underlying species’ ecological and evolutionary responses to rapid, widespread global changes. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the anthropocene’.


1987 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marleen Pugach ◽  
Mara Sapon-Shevin

The calls for educational reform that have dominated the professional and lay literature for the past few years have been decidedly silent in discussing the role of special education either as a contributor or a solution to the problems being raised. As an introduction to this “Special Focus” on the relationship between general educational reform and special education, this article summarizes some of the more prominent reports with regard to their treatment (and nontreatment) of special education. The impact of proposed reforms for the conceptualization and operation of special education is the subject of the five articles that follow.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Μαντώ Λαμπροπούλου (Manto Lampropoulou)

Over the past two decades, utilities policy in Greece has been steadily shifting towards privatization and liberalization. This shift signified a critical reconsideration of the boundaries and the dynamics of the relationship between the state and the market in network industries. Public debate usually focuses on issues of ownership of public enterprises and economic performance. On the contrary, this book places the emphasis on the socio-economic implications of utilities policy for citizens. A key issue is the impact of privatization on the relationship between government (state), public enterprises (market) and citizens (society). The study covers the period from the post-war state monopolies to the current circumstances of mixed/private ownership of public enterprises and liberalized markets. The main questions addressed in this book are the following: What is the rationale (legitimization) for government intervention in the utilities sector? What are the politics of nationalization and privatization? How different policy contexts affect the institutional, organizational and regulatory framework of the utilities sector? Who are the key-stakeholders and policy actors? What is the role of citizens? What is the (re)distribution of utilities policy costs and benefits among stakeholders?


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