scholarly journals Making History Possible: Logograph in China and Hieroglyph in Central America

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-80
Author(s):  
Yi Chen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
General Information ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
And Function ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Written Materials ◽  
Compare And Contrast

In the following paper, I will compare and contrast the development of script in two different writing systems: the Mayan and the Chinese. This paper will demonstrate how each system employed writing to map language into a durable technology for communication. By doing so, I will provide the general information that introduces readers to the origin, purpose, and function of the two writing systems. Through analysis of the development of Mayan and Chinese writing systems, the paper also shows that significant aspects of culture were preserved and transmitted by written materials as they contribute to the continuation of the two civilizations. This approach also has the benefit of emphasizing the strong relationship between culture and writing. Studying the origins, development, and use of writing in these two cultures mitigates against the tendency to devalue certain cultures. A study of both Chinese and Mayan writing is especially important since both cultures developed scripts that did not borrow from the writing systems of other civilizations.

scholarly journals The T-shaped “axe” from Northeast Honduras: Observations on chronology and function of a pre Columbian stone tool

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. Healy ◽  
Daniel Savage
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Central America ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Distinctive Type ◽  
University Museum ◽  
And Function ◽  
Bay Islands

This paper provides a description and analysis of a distinctive type of pre-Columbian stone tool, usually termed a T-shaped axe, found almost exclusively in Northeast Honduras, Central America. There have been very few detailed or technical studies of lithics from Honduras. Early archaeological research and the current understanding of the regional prehistory are included, with Northeast Honduras viewed as a frontier zone located between the Mesoamerican and Isthmo-Columbian culture areas. Our study examines, in particular, a collection of these tools curated today at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (CUMAA). The 39 (whole and fragmentary) specimens were collected between 1937 and 1939, from the Bay Islands, Northeast Honduras, but have never been published. This paper classifies the collection specimens into five varieties, based on morphology, with sample statistics, form dimensions, and illustrations provided for each. Manufacturing technology is primarily percussion flaking. The tool type is compared with similar specimens excavated and described from the Bay Islands and adjacent Honduran mainland, and with similar appearing implements from elsewhere in Central America. Insights about the possible age and function of these unusual, and distinctive, lithics are included. Based on preliminary macroscopic and microscopic analyses, it is concluded that the tools may have been employed as agricultural implements (hoes or spades), primarily for digging activities, rather than as axes or weapons used for cutting and slicing. It is most likely that these implements first appeared about 800 CE, and continued in use until at least 1400 CE. The tool type is most probably a local (not imported) product. More functional analysis is encouraged.

scholarly journals Neurocognitive Basis of Dyslexia in Different Writing Systems

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Liu ◽  
James R. Booth
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

An important issue in dyslexia research is whether developmental dyslexia in different writing systems has a common neurocognitive basis across writing systems or whether there are specific neurocognitive alterations. In this chapter, we review studies that investigate the neurocognitive basis of dyslexia in Chinese, a logographic writing system, and compare the findings of these studies with dyslexia in alphabetic writing systems. We begin with a brief review of the characteristics of the Chinese writing system because to fully understand the commonality and specificity in the neural basis of Chinese dyslexia one must understand how logographic writing systems are structured differently than alphabetic systems.

scholarly journals The MscS and MscL Families of Mechanosensitive Channels Act as Microbial Emergency Release Valves

2012 ◽  
Vol 194 (18) ◽  
pp. 4802-4809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian R. Booth ◽  
Paul Blount
Keyword(s):  
Structure And Function ◽  
Mechanosensitive Channel ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
Mechanosensitive Channels ◽  
Additional Pressure ◽  
Environmental Extremes ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
And Function ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Plant Organelles

ABSTRACTSingle-celled organisms must survive exposure to environmental extremes. Perhaps one of the most variable and potentially life-threatening changes that can occur is that of a rapid and acute decrease in external osmolarity. This easily translates into several atmospheres of additional pressure that can build up within the cell. Without a protective mechanism against such pressures, the cell will lyse. Hence, most microbes appear to possess members of one or both families of bacterial mechanosensitive channels, MscS and MscL, which can act as biological emergency release valves that allow cytoplasmic solutes to be jettisoned rapidly from the cell. While this is undoubtedly a function of these proteins, the discovery of the presence of MscS homologues in plant organelles and MscL in fungus and mycoplasma genomes may complicate this simplistic interpretation of the physiology underlying these proteins. Here we compare and contrast these two mechanosensitive channel families, discuss their potential physiological roles, and review some of the most relevant data that underlie the current models for their structure and function.

scholarly journals Exploring the Superior Colliculus In Vitro

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (5) ◽  
pp. 2581-2593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadashi Isa ◽  
William C. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Sensorimotor Integration ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Whole Cell Patch Clamp ◽  
Parabrachial Nuclei ◽  
And Function ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Selection Of

The superior colliculus plays an important role in the translation of sensory signals that encode the location of objects in space into motor signals that encode vectors of the shifts in gaze direction called saccades. Since the late 1990s, our two laboratories have been applying whole cell patch-clamp techniques to in vitro slice preparations of rodent superior colliculus to analyze the structure and function of its circuitry at the cellular level. This review describes the results of these experiments and discusses their contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for sensorimotor integration in the superior colliculus. The experiments analyze vertical interactions between its superficial visuosensory and intermediate premotor layers and propose how they might contribute to express saccades and to saccadic suppression. They also compare and contrast the circuitry within each of these layers and propose how this circuitry might contribute to the selection of the targets for saccades and to the build-up of the premotor commands that precede saccades. Experiments also explore in vitro the roles of extrinsic inputs to the superior colliculus, including cholinergic inputs from the parabigeminal and parabrachial nuclei and GABAergic inputs from the substantia nigra pars reticulata, in modulating the activity of the collicular circuitry. The results extend and clarify our understanding of the multiple roles the superior colliculus plays in sensorimotor integration.

Stroke systems in Chinese characters: A systemic functional perspective on simplified regular script

Semiotica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (218) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Xuanwei Peng
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Point System ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Character Formation ◽  
Line System ◽  
Preliminary Attempt ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Chinese Writing

AbstractThis article makes a preliminary attempt to account for the stroke systems of Chinese characters in simplified regular script. The framework utilized is the three meta-functions in Systemic Functional Linguistics. The description observes the cases from the perspectives of the experiential, appraisal (aesthetic), and thematic semiosis of strokes and their constitutional segments to figure out the relevant systems: the line system and the point system. This process witnesses comparisons to seek, in brief though, the traces and origins of stroke development along evolution, and hence the straightening of lines and squaring of character formation. This is the first step towards a rank model of Chinese writing, the whole project of which will highlight a way to study other writing systems in the semiotic respect.

Mother and Infant Activity and Interaction in Japan and in the United States: I. A Comparative Macroanalysis of Naturalistic Exchanges

1990 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc H. Bornstein ◽  
Hiroshi Azuma ◽  
Catherine Tamis-LeMonda ◽  
Misako Ogino
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Natural Setting ◽  
Developmental Issues ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Verbal Stimulation ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Stimulation Of

It is widely held that Japanese and U.S. Americans differ in prominent aspects of their psychological make-ups, and that experiences of early life may be responsible for certain social and intellectual distinctions between members of these two cultures. To compare and contrast activities and interactions of Japanese and American mothers and their 5-month-old infants, 48 mother-infant dyads, half in Tokyo and half in New York City, were observed in the natural setting of their homes. This report examines mothers visual and verbal stimulation of infants and infants visual and tactual exploration and vocalisation from a macroanalytic viewpoint. First, similarities and differences among Japanese and American infants and mothers on these activities are assessed. Next, covariation among infants activities and among mothers activities within each culture is evaluated, and resultant patterns of covariation between the two cultures are compared. Finally, correspondence between mothers and infants activities in each culture is analysed, and patterns of interactions between the two cultures are compared. Two issues are discussed. First considered are the identification and description of activities, interactions, and developmental processes that are similar and different in these two cultures, and second considered are cross-cultural tests of developmental issues related to covariation and correspondence of activity in mother-infant dyads.

Indigenous Manuscripts of Ancient and Early Colonial Mesoamerica: 13th–16th Centuries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angélica J. Afanador-Pujol
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lime Plaster ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
And Function

In the area known as Mesoamerica (Mexico, Guatemala, parts of El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize), indigenous writers between the 13th and 16th centuries produced manuscripts using both pictographic and alphabetic-based texts. They worked closely with noble and priestly elites to meticulously design and paint manuscripts. Before the arrival of Europeans, writers worked on a variety of media, from animal hide and textiles to paper. They folded long sheets into accordion-like manuscripts, covered them in a lime plaster, and, using rich natural pigments, recorded complex writing systems. These books contained historical, religious, political, scientific, and cultural knowledge. They not only recorded information, but guided the lives of individuals and communities. Only fourteen of these manuscripts are known to survive, as Spanish conquistadors and friars destroyed the vast majority of them in their effort to eradicate indigenous religions during the conquest of the region in the 16th century. In the years following the Spanish invasion, Mesoamerican artists and scribes had to adapt to new demands from their indigenous patrons, the viceregal government, and the Catholic church. They learned to use the European alphabet and artistic conventions to produce new materials containing ethnographic, religious, and historical information. In addition, they transcribed and wrote speeches, songs, and poems, and produced legal documents to fight for their own rights and those of their communities, rulers, and patrons. Modern-day scholars have made great strides deciphering pre-Columbian writing systems and understanding the make, medium, and function of manuscripts. The vast corpus of colonial-era manuscripts has also been a productive field for understanding Mesoamerican thought, cultural practices, and the social and political forces that shaped colonial life and its literary production.

scholarly journals Morphological analysis of dendrites and spines by hybridization of ridge detection with twin support vector machine

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuihua Wang ◽  
Mengmeng Chen ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
Ying Shao ◽  
Yudong Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Support Vector Machine ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Dendritic Spines ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Twin Support Vector Machine ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Ridge Detection ◽  
Neuroscience Research ◽  
Boundary Location ◽  
And Function

Dendritic spines are described as neuronal protrusions. The morphology of dendritic spines and dendrites has a strong relationship to its function, as well as playing an important role in understanding brain function. Quantitative analysis of dendrites and dendritic spines is essential to an understanding of the formation and function of the nervous system. However, highly efficient tools for the quantitative analysis of dendrites and dendritic spines are currently undeveloped. In this paper we propose a novel three-step cascaded algorithm–RTSVM— which is composed of ridge detection as the curvature structure identifier for backbone extraction, boundary location based on differences in density, the Hu moment as features and Twin Support Vector Machine (TSVM) classifiers for spine classification. Our data demonstrates that this newly developed algorithm has performed better than other available techniques used to detect accuracy and false alarm rates. This algorithm will be used effectively in neuroscience research.

New research on the adoption and transformation of Chinese writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-145
Author(s):  
Norbert Francis
Keyword(s):  
Southern China ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
New Research ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Principles Of Learning ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract A major study has been released on the emergence in East Asia of the logographic, or logo-syllabic, writing systems inherited from Chinese writing, attending primarily to the adaptations and innovations implemented in Korea, Vietnam, Japan and by speakers of the Tai languages of Southern China and Northern Vietnam. It contributes to our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms, of how speakers of different languages transformed the character script. The book points to overarching research problems concerning the relationship between language and writing, how aspects of this relationship are based on universal principles of learning exemplified in bilingual literacy. The research questions presented by the author will ultimately help us better understand literacy learning and the nature of reading and writing ability in general.

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