The evolution of language: a comparative review

For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful "just so stories" about language origins. However, in the last decade a new synthesis of modern linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory has begun to make important contributions to our understanding of the biology and evolution of language. I review some of this recent progress, focusing on the value of the comparative method, which uses data from animal species to draw inferences about language evolution. Discussing speech first, I show how data concerning a wide variety of species, from monkeys to birds, can increase our understanding of the anatomical and neural mechanisms underlying human spoken language, and how bird and whale song provide insights into the ultimate evolutionary function of language. I discuss the ‘‘descended larynx’ ’ of humans, a peculiar adaptation for speech that has received much attention in the past, which despite earlier claims is not uniquely human. Then I will turn to the neural mechanisms underlying spoken language, pointing out the difficulties animals apparently experience in perceiving hierarchical structure in sounds, and stressing the importance of vocal imitation in the evolution of a spoken language. Turning to ultimate function, I suggest that communication among kin (especially between parents and offspring) played a crucial but neglected role in driving language evolution. Finally, I briefly discuss phylogeny, discussing hypotheses that offer plausible routes to human language from a non-linguistic chimp-like ancestor. I conclude that comparative data from living animals will be key to developing a richer, more interdisciplinary understanding of our most distinctively human trait: language

Relation between type and local of orthopedic injuries with physical activity in horses

ABSTRACT: Equine sport modalities influence the prevalence and predisposition of musculoskeletal injuries in horses. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of location and type of orthopedic injuries of horses undergoing various physical activities. Data from 116 horses of different breeds and ages was analyzed. Physical activities included dressage, racing, polo pony, jumping, work and western performance. All horses had history of orthopedic lameness diagnosed by radiographs and/or ultrasound scans. The effect of sport on the affected anatomical site and type of lesion was performed using Fisher's exact test. Desmitis was more prevalent in animals that performed western sports than in the working ones. The number of fractures was greater in racing and polo pony animals than in working horses. Stifle lesions were more prevalent in dressage horses than working horses and had lower occurrence of shoulder injuries than jumping horses. Hind limb tendon injuries were lower in jumping than in dressage and western horses. We conclude that there is a relationship between location and type of injury and physical activities. In racing horses there is a predominance of young animals and higher prevalence of orthopedic injuries from traumatic events such as tendonitis, desmitis and fractures. In physical activities that require longer training and that animals were used for longer periods, eg. jumping, polo pony, dressage and work, age-related degenerative, such as joint disease, were predominant. In western sport animals the most common lesion was desmitis. Regarding limbs, forelimb injures were more often observed in racing horses, polo pony, jumping and working animals; whereas, dressage and Western sports horses presented more injuries in hind limbs

The supply of sports activities in public and private schools of Greece.

Abstract. A common behavior in animals or human beings is deception. We focus on deceptive behavior in robotics because the appropriate use of deception is beneficial in several domains ranging from the military to a more everyday context. In this research, novel algorithms are developed for the deceptive behavior of a robot, inspired by the observed deceptive behavior of squirrels for cache protection strategies, evaluating the results via simulation studies.