scholarly journals Tone and genes: New cross-linguistic data and methods support the weak negative effect of the “derived” allele of ASPM on tone, but not of Microcephalin

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253546
Author(s):  
Dan Dediu
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Approach ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Statistical Test ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Brain Growth ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Experimental Findings

While it is generally accepted that language and speech have genetic foundations, and that the widespread inter-individual variation observed in many of their aspects is partly driven by variation in genes, it is much less clear if differences between languages may also be partly rooted in our genes. One such proposal is that the population frequencies of the so-called “derived” alleles of two genes involved in brain growth and development, ASPM and Microcephalin, are related to the probability of speaking a tone language or not. The original study introducing this proposal used a cross-linguistic statistical approach, showing that these associations are “special” when compared with many other possible relationships between genetic variants and linguistic features. Recent experimental evidence supports strongly a negative effect of the “derived” allele of ASPM on tone perception and/or processing within individuals, but failed to find any effect for Microcephalin. Motivated by these experimental findings, I conduct here a cross-linguistic statistical test, using a larger and updated dataset of 175 samples from 129 unique (meta)populations, and a battery of methods including mixed-effects regression (Bayesian and maximum-likelihood), mediation and path analysis, decision trees and random forests, using permutations and restricted sampling to control for the confounding effects of genealogy (language families) and contact (macroareas). Overall, the results support a negative weak effect of ASPM-D against the presence of tone above and beyond the strong confounding influences of genealogy and contact, but they suggest that the original association between tone and MCPH1 might have been a false positive, explained by differences between populations and languages within and outside Africa. Thus, these cross-linguistic population-scale statistical results are fully consonant with the inter-individual-level experimental results, and suggest that the observed linguistic diversity may be, at least in some cases, partly driven by genetic diversity.

scholarly journals Genetic influences on tone? New experimental evidence and its consequences for linguistics.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Dediu ◽  
D. Robert Ladd
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Negative Correlation ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Genetic Influences ◽  
Brain Growth ◽  
Statistical Association ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Experimental Findings

In 2007, we used a cross-linguistic statistical analysis to show that there seems to be a negative correlation between the population frequency of the “derived” alleles of two genes involved in brain growth and development, ASPM and Microcephalin (or MCHP1), and the use of tone in the language(s) spoken by the population. Despite our best attempts at disentangling the confounding effects of contact and genealogical inheritance, and the fact that these correlations stood out among millions of similar correlations between multiple genetic markers and linguistic features, this was, at best, a statistical association and, at worst, a false positive. However, new experimental evidence has recently been published independently of us, showing that the negative correlation between the “derived” allele of ASPM and tone perception and/or processing is present at the level of inter-individual differences among more than 400 native speakers of Cantonese, providing strong support for our initial findings (on the other hand, there is no signal for MCPH1). Here we contextualize and summarize these experimental findings, we address some remaining puzzles (including MCHP1 and the absence of tone in Australia), and we discuss the implications of these results for the language sciences.

scholarly journals Impact of Economic Freedom on Corruption Revisited in ASEAN Countries: A Bayesian Hierarchical Mixed-Effects Analysis

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Nguyen Ngoc Thach ◽  
Bui Hoang Ngoc
Keyword(s):  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Random Coefficients ◽  
Bayesian Hierarchical ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Corruption Index ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Economic Freedom Index ◽  
Asean Countries

Conceptual and applied studies assessing the linkage between economic freedom and corruption expect that economic freedom boosts economic growth, improves income, and reduces levels of corruption. However, most of them have concentrated on developed and developing groups, while Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have drawn much less attention. Empirical findings are most often conflicting. Moreover, previous studies performed rather simple frequentist techniques regressing one or some freedom indices on corruption that do not allow for grasping all the aspects of economic freedom as well as capturing variations across countries. The study aims to investigate the effects of ten components of economic freedom index on the level of corruption in ten ASEAN countries from 1999 to 2018. By applying a Bayesian hierarchical mixed-effects regression via a Monte Carlo technique combined with the Gibbs sampler, the obtained results suggest several findings as follows: (i) In view of probability, the predictors property rights, government integrity, tax burden, business freedom, labor freedom, and investment freedom have a strongly positive impact on the response perceived corruption index; (ii) Government spending, trade freedom, and financial freedom exert a strongly negative effect, while the influence of monetary freedom is ambiguous; (iii) There is an existence of not only random intercepts but also random coefficients at the country level impacting the model outcome. The empirical outcome could be of major importance for more efficient corruption controlling in emerging countries, including ASEAN nations.

scholarly journals A Bayesian phylogenetic approach to estimating the stability of linguistic features and the genetic biasing of tone

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1704) ◽  
pp. 474-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Dediu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Software Implementations ◽  
Phylogenetic Framework ◽  
Linguistic Tone ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Stable Characteristic

Language is a hallmark of our species and understanding linguistic diversity is an area of major interest. Genetic factors influencing the cultural transmission of language provide a powerful and elegant explanation for aspects of the present day linguistic diversity and a window into the emergence and evolution of language. In particular, it has recently been proposed that linguistic tone —the usage of voice pitch to convey lexical and grammatical meaning—is biased by two genes involved in brain growth and development, ASPM and Microcephalin . This hypothesis predicts that tone is a stable characteristic of language because of its ‘genetic anchoring’. The present paper tests this prediction using a Bayesian phylogenetic framework applied to a large set of linguistic features and language families, using multiple software implementations, data codings, stability estimations, linguistic classifications and outgroup choices. The results of these different methods and datasets show a large agreement, suggesting that this approach produces reliable estimates of the stability of linguistic data. Moreover, linguistic tone is found to be stable across methods and datasets, providing suggestive support for the hypothesis of genetic influences on its distribution.

scholarly journals Migration and Wage Effects of Taxing Top Earners: Evidence from the Foreigners’ Tax Scheme in Denmark *

2013 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Jacobsen Kleven ◽  
Camille Landais ◽  
Emmanuel Saez ◽  
Esben Schultz
Keyword(s):  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Income Taxation ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Flat Rate ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
New Immigrants ◽  
Wage Effects ◽  
Matching Frictions ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Individual

Abstract This article analyzes the effects of income taxation on the international migration and earnings of top earners using a Danish preferential foreigner tax scheme and population-wide Danish administrative data. This scheme, introduced in 1991, allows new immigrants with high earnings to be taxed at a preferential flat rate for a duration of three years. We obtain two main results. First, the scheme has doubled the number of highly paid foreigners in Denmark relative to slightly less paid—and therefore ineligible—foreigners. This translates into a very large elasticity of migration with respect to 1 minus the average tax rate on foreigners, between 1.5 and 2. Second, we find compelling evidence of a negative effect of the scheme-induced reduction in the average tax rate on pretax earnings of foreign migrants at the individual level. This finding can be rationalized by a matching frictions model with wage bargaining where there is a gap between pay and marginal productivity.

scholarly journals Isolated individuals and groups show opposite preferences toward humidity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Calvo Martín ◽  
Stamatios C. Nicolis ◽  
Isaac Planas-Sitjà ◽  
Jean-Christophe de Biseau ◽  
Jean-Louis Deneubourg
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractCockroaches, like most social arthropods, are led to choose collectively among different alternative resting places. These decisions are modulated by different factors, such as environmental conditions (temperature, relative humidity) and sociality (groups size, nature of communications). The aim of this study is to establish the interplay between environmental conditions and the modulation of the interactions between individuals within a group leading to an inversion of preferences. We show that the preferences of isolated cockroaches and groups of 16 individuals, on the selection of the relative humidity of a shelter are inversed and shed light on the mechanisms involved. We suggest that the relative humidity has a multi-level influence on cockroaches, manifested as an attractant effect at the individual level and as a negative effect at the group level, modulating the interactions.

scholarly journals A Multilevel Mixed Effects Analysis of Informal Carers Health in Australia: The role of Community Participation, Social Support and Trust at Small Area level.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itismita Mohanty ◽  
Theo Niyonsenga ◽  
Tom Cochrane ◽  
Debra Rickwood
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
General Health ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Level Variation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Informal Carers

Abstract Background: Informal carers suffer from worse health outcomes than non-carers due to their caregiving role. Yet, in a society carers health is as important as that of their care recipients. This study investigated the self-assessed mental and general health outcomes of informal carers in Australia. It evaluated the influence of carers’ personal social capital- a logically linked sequence of their social behaviour such as community participation, social support and trust in others- on their health outcomes. The study estimated the magnitude of small local area (SA1) level variation along with individual level variation in carers’ health outcomes.Methods: The study used a multilevel mixed effects cross-sectional design using data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia survey, wave 14. It included Australians aged 15 years and older that were surveyed in the year 2014. The sample consisted of 12,767 individuals and 5004 SA1s. The outcome measures included- mental health, general health and physical functioning, domains of the Short Form 36 Questionnaire, a widely used multi-dimensional measure of health-related quality of life.Results: Informal carers suffered from poor mental (Beta = -0.587, p=0.003) and general health (Beta = -0.670, p=0.001) outcomes compared to non-carers in Australia. These health outcomes exhibited significant variation across small areas (SA1s) in Australia, with 12-13% variation in general and mental health. However, within small local areas, differences at the individual level, accounted for most of the variation in outcomes. Moreover, levels of community participation, personal social connection and trust, as perceived by individuals in the communities, had a positive influence on both mental and general health of carers and non-carers, and were more beneficial for carers compared to non-carers. Conclusion: It seems that the positive influence of social capital for carers helps them in coping with the negative impact of their caregiving duty on health outcomes. Findings suggested that some targeted community support programs for carers to build on their personal social cohesion and trust in their community could help in improving their poor health profiles. Moreover, improved informal carers’ health may help the health system in better managing their resources.

scholarly journals Probability of pregnancy before ninety days postpartum in water buffaloes

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
Hector Nava-Trujillo ◽  
Robert Valeris-Chacin ◽  
Adriana Morgado-Osorio ◽  
Javier Hernández ◽  
Janeth Caamaño ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linear Mixed Model ◽  
Water Buffalo ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Short Photoperiod ◽  
Water Buffaloes ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Log Odds ◽  
First 90 Days ◽  
Long Photoperiod

This study aimed to determine the effect of parity and season of calving on the probability of water buffalo cows becoming pregnant before 90 days postpartum. A retrospective analysis of reproductive records of 1,465 water buffaloes with 3,181 pregnancies was carried out. Buffaloes were grouped according to parity in one, two, or three and more calvings. Season of calving was created with the following values: long photoperiod (March-August) and short photoperiod (September-February) and predicted probabilities from the mixed-effects logistic regression model were calculated, and a generalized linear mixed model was fitted with random intercepts to calculate the log odds of becoming pregnant ≤90 days postpartum. The probability of pregnancy ≤90 days postpartum was 0.3645, and this was lower in primiparous (0.2717) in comparison with two-calved (0.3863) and three or more calving buffaloes (0.5166). Probability of pregnancy ≤90 days postpartum increased 1.77 odds by each increase in parity. The probability of becoming pregnant ≤90 days postpartum was higher in water buffaloes calving during the short photoperiod season (0.4239 vs. 0.2474, P>0.000), and water buffaloes calving during the long photoperiod season only had 0.2645 odds to become pregnant than those calving during the short photoperiod season. The negative effect of long photoperiod was observed indifferently of parity. In conclusion, primiparity and the long photoperiod affect water buffalo cow's reproductive performance, decreasing pregnancy probability during the first 90 days postpartum.

Analysis of current events: Identity mobilization in hybrid regimes: Language in Ukrainian politics

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volha Charnysh
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Law ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Language Law ◽  
The Eu

In August, a new language law in Ukraine allowed cities and regions to elevate the status of any minority language spoken by at least 10% of their population to “official” alongside Ukrainian. I argue that the law fails to protect genuine linguistic minorities and is likely to further undermine linguistic diversity in certain Ukrainian regions. More important, the law prolongs the vicious circle between Ukraine's lack of democracy and its politicians’ reliance on identity cleavages to gather votes. I argue that the continuing exploitation of identity divides is increasing the popularity of extreme right parties and widening the gap in policy preferences between Ukrainian and Russian speakers. However, the current ethno-regional cleavages do not stand for irreconcilable identity attachments and their impact can be mitigated. The EU could contribute to this outcome by providing expert opinions on minority and language rights; demonstrating a commitment to Ukraine's territorial integrity and independence to de-securitize the minority rights discourse; and increasing individual-level contacts between the EU and Ukraine to promote a broader European identity.

The Economic Roots of External Efficacy: Assessing the Relationship between External Political Efficacy and Income Inequality

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikel Norris
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
National Level ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractExternal political efficacy, the belief that government is responsive to the demands of its citizens, has been declining in the United States since the 1960s. However, scholars do not yet fully understand the reasons for its decline. Nor have they found suitable explanations for why it fluctuates within the electorate. Drawing on the growing literature on the effects of income inequality on public policy, I posit that increasing income inequality factors into the decline of external political efficacy. Using multilevel regression models accounting for individual and contextual factors, I find increasing state-level income inequality has a substantial negative effect on external political efficacy. It is greater than most state and national-level economic measures or individual-level variables on external political efficacy. These results have important implications both for research on income inequality and political participation and also for research on income inequality and distributional public policy.

Simulating an Incentive Framework for Scientific Production by Means of Adaptive Agents

2014 ◽  
pp. 221-238
Author(s):  
Gabriel Franklin ◽  
Tibérius O. Bonates
Keyword(s):  
Incentive Mechanism ◽  
Scientific Production ◽  
Agent Based Simulation ◽  
Adaptive Agents ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Original Target ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Individual

This chapter describes an agent-based simulation of an incentive mechanism for scientific production. In the proposed framework, a central agency is responsible for devising and enforcing a policy consisting of performance-based incentives in an attempt to induce a global positive behavior of a group of researchers, in terms of number and type of scientific publications. The macro-level incentive mechanism triggers micro-level actions that, once intensified by social interactions, lead to certain patterns of behavior from individual agents (researchers). Positive reinforcement from receiving incentives (as well as negative reinforcement from not receiving them) shape the behavior of agents in the course of the simulation. The authors show, by means of computational experiments, that a policy devised to act at the individual level might induce a single global behavior that can, depending on the values of certain parameters, be distinct from the original target and have an overall negative effect. The agent-based simulation provides an objective way of assessing the quantitative effect that different policies might induce on the behavior of individual researchers when it comes to their preferences regarding scientific publications.

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