Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Cornell University and Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a method for enabling a computer program to scan text in any of a number of languages, including English and Chinese, and autonomously and without previous information infer the underlying rules of grammar. The rules can then be used to generate new and meaningful sentences. The method also works for such data as sheet music or protein sequences.
Read the full article at Cornell University News
A group of Montreal researchers has discovered that GCN2, a protein in cells that inhibits the conversion of new information into long-term memory, may be a master regulator of the switch from short-term to long-term memory.
Read the full article at Universit? de Montr?al
“There is increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims,” says researcher John Ioannidis in an analysis in the open access international medical journal PLoS Medicine.
Read the full article at Science Daily
The International Congress of Finno-Ugric Studies, which concluded at the weekend in Joskar-Ola, the capital of Russia’s Mari El Republic, did not yield much in the way of linguistic science or anthropology, but in other respects the meeting was quite colourful.
Read the full article at Helsingin Sanomat
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Methamphetamine Abuse and HIV Infection can cause significant changes in the brain structures that can later affect the cognitive functions like learning new things, problem solving, paying attention to something and processing information. The results are more if both the conditions happen simultaneously.
Read the full article at Medindia
In a new study published in the latest issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science researchers conclude that older adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss may expend so much cognitive energy on hearing accurately that their ability to remember spoken language suffers as a result.
Read the full article at NAMC Newswire
When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil five centuries ago, they encountered a fundamental problem: the indigenous peoples they conquered spoke more than 700 languages. Rising to the challenge, the Jesuit priests accompanying them concocted a mixture of Indian, Portuguese and African words they called “língua geral,” or the “general language,” and imposed it on their colonial subjects. Now, tribes that have lost their own mother tongue are taking refuge in língua geral and making it an element of their identity.
Read the full article at New York Times
Saturday, August 27, 2005
It’s a genetic evolution that’s caused babies to be smarter than their ancestors and most of it is attributed to prenatal stimulation. Many professionals in paediatrics believe it is a fact, while others dispute the numerous tests and research results that claim the evolution is true.
Read the full article at The Independent
Communication evolved hand-in-hand with social bonding, suggests a new study of non-human primates, which probes the origins of language.
Read the full article at New Scientist
Friday, August 26, 2005
When delegates to an international youth conference on Inuit languages met in Iqaluit last week, they were unable to conduct any of their working sessions in their native tongue or dialects.
Read the full article at Nunatsiaq News
Listening to someone on a mobile phone while driving is just as dangerous as talking to them, claims new research.
Read the full article at
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated a promising, minimally invasive optical technique that can capture micron-scale images from deep in the brains of live subjects. The method, called two-photon microendoscopy, combines a pair of powerful optical and mechanical techniques into one device that fits in the palm of the hand. The results appear in the September 1, 2005 issue of Optics Letters, a journal published by the Optical Society of America.
Read the full article at Science Daily
Expressive language characteristics of typically developing children learning English as a second language are similar to the English spoken by monolingual children who have specific language impairment. “The errors they make when they speak English are nearly identical to the errors children make when they are language-impaired,” said Dr. Johanne Paradis, a linguistics professor at the University of Alberta.
Read the full article at Medical News Today
Monday, August 22, 2005
Chinese and American people see the world differently – literally. While Americans focus on the central objects of photographs, Chinese individuals pay more attention to the image as a whole, according to psychologists at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, US.
Read the full article at New Scientist
Sunday, August 21, 2005
The academic behind one of the most significant surveys into the dialects of Britain since the 1970s claims that the way most Scots now speak is so different from the rest of the country that it is a language in its own right.
Read the full article at Sunday Herald
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