.jpg "Machine Learning has Helped Forecast Global Hotspots of Unrest and Revolution")
Machine Learning has Helped Forecast Global Hotspots of Unrest and Revolution
HSE scientists Andrey Korotayev and Ilya Medvedev used machine learning (ML) to build an index of instability in the world. The new method made it possible to use a large number of variables and distribute them in non-standard fashion.
Foreign Languages Slow Down Brain Ageing
Medical advances are causing a gradual increase in average life expectancy. However, this comes at a price, as the number of cases of dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases grows with age. Researchers from HSE University (Russia) and Northumbria University (UK) have found that bilingualism can slow down and mitigate the course of age-related changes in the human brain. The study was published in Frontiers in Psychology.
Economic Crises Affect People’s Attitudes to Inequality
Inequality based on income, geography, gender, age, class and religion widens social gaps both within and between countries. During the XXIII Yasin (April) International Conference, experts discussed which dimensions of inequality have become especially important in the wake of the pandemic and the evolving economic crisis, and also examined how much more women work than men.
Researchers Have Developed a Russian-Language Method for the Preoperative Mapping of Language Areas
Neurolinguists from HSE University, in collaboration with radiologists from the Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Centre, developed a Russian-language protocol for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that makes it possible to map individual language areas before neurosurgical operations. The study was published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Card Index: Spatial Behaviour. Where Does Our Personal Comfort Zone End?
Individual distance, comfort zone—these terms refer to how close we are prepared to let other people into our personal space. Scientists compare the space around a person to a bubble that can change in size. Card Index looks at the work of RAS and HSE University researchers Valentina Burkova and Julia Fedenok to find out why this is the case, what size this ‘bubble’ can be, and what determines its size.
Where the Babies are Booming: Which Russian Regions Have the Highest Birthrates?
The birthrate across Russia is not uniform: in some areas, people have children earlier in life, and in some, later. These contrasts reflect various populations’ differing demographic outlooks and the dynamics of their respective regions, as well as the extent to which their residents adhere to traditional norms of reproductive behaviour. On the whole, almost no large areas with high birthrates remain in Russia. Here, IQ.HSE studies current trends based on an article by demographer Artur Petrosyan.
Researchers Investigate Differences Between Post-Stroke and Post-Surgery Aphasia
Researchers from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain worked with Russian doctors to address the differences between the symptoms of post-stroke aphasia and aphasia caused by glioma surgery. Post-surgery patients demonstrate moderately severe speech disorders that impact all aspects of language processing simultaneously. Understanding these differences will help doctors develop more effective therapies for speech disorders caused by surgical removal of gliomas. The results of the study were published in Brain and Language.
HSE University Launches Third Mirror Laboratories Competition
The competition is open to HSE University research units planning to conduct joint projects with academic institutions, research organisations and state academic centres of the Russian Federation. Applications are open until May 20, 2022.
People Over 65 are Less Prone to Apathy and Depression
The degree of depression and apathy is higher between the ages of 50 and 65 than after 65. What’s more, apathy among those of pre-retirement age depends on subjective vitality — the sense of being full of life and energy.
Deadly Habits: Why Women Live Longer Than Men
In developing countries, the gap in life expectancies between men and women has been shrinking for a long time—but it has not disappeared completely. In many cases, gender-related differences in mortality in the 45–69 age group account for almost half of this gap. However, in Eastern Europe, early mortality in men aged 50 and under accounts for over a third of it. Demographer Marina Vergeles examined the situation in more than 40 countries and shared her conclusions with IQ.HSE.