Any language allows its users to express virtually any thought they can conceptualize. These traits render human language unique in the biological world. Understanding the biological basis of language is thus both extremely challenging and fundamentally interesting. I review the literature on linguistic diversity and language universals, suggesting that an adequate notion of ‘formal universals’ provides a promising way to understand the facts of language acquisition,

offering order in the face of the diversity of human languages. Formal universals are cross-linguistic generalizations, often of an abstract or implicational nature. They derive from cognitive capacities to perceive selleck kinase inhibitor and process particular types of structures and biological constraints upon integration of the multiple systems involved in language. Such formal universals can be understood on the model of a general solution to a set of differential equations; each language is one particular solution. An explicit formal conception of human language that embraces both considerable diversity and underlying biological unity Sotrastaurin is possible, and fully compatible with modern evolutionary theory.”
“The myotubularins are a family of phosphoinositide 3-phosphatases preferentially hydrolyzing phosphatidylinositol 3-monophosphate and also phosphatidylinositol (3,5) bis-phosphate, thus generating

phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol 5-monophosphate, respectively. These phosphoinositides are known regulators of vesicular trafficking and phosphatidylinositol 5-monophosphate was also implicated in signal transduction regulation. Based on their capacity to control the level of these phosphoinositides, myotubularins are involved BMS-345541 in the regulation of vesicular trafficking,

membrane homeostasis, cytoskeleton dynamics, proliferation and apoptosis. Myotubularin dysfunctions are linked to genetic diseases: MTMI is mutated in the X-linked congenital myotubular myopathy and MTMR2 and MTMR13 are mutated in autosomal recessive type 4B1 and 4B2 Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathies, respectively. This review presents the cellular functions of myotubularins and highlights their physiopathological roles in neuromuscular diseases.”
“Despite the apparent risks of the introduction of non-indigenous ungulates to biodiversity, relatively little is known globally about the pathways of introduction, propagule pressure and realized impacts of ungulate introductions. These issues were examined here by investigating ungulate introductions to South Africa within a global context. Across countries globally, introduced ungulate richness is not related to indigenous ungulate richness, and several countries are clear outliers. South Africa is second only to the USA in the number of ungulate species introduced to date.