The paper contains a discussion on two kinds of coincidence experiments. First, a standard two-photon coincidence experiment is considered and it is shown that its outcomes are incompatible with any classical radiation theory because of the role of the state vector reduction phenomenon in such an experiment. In the second part of the paper a proposed new kind of photon coincidence experiment is discussed. The classical and quantum predictions for the outcomes of this experiment differ dramatically and therefore (...) the experiment should constitute a new limitation to the classical radiation theories. The proposed experiment should also yield information about the kinematics of the reduction of the state vector process. (shrink)

Following the argument of Pusey et al. (in Nature Phys. 8:476, 2012), new interest has been raised on whether one can interpret state-vectors (pure states) in a statistical way (ψ-epistemic theories), or if each one of them corresponds to a different ontological entity. Each interpretation of quantum theory assumes different ontology and one could ask if the PBR argument carries over. Here we examine this question for histories formulations in general with particular attention to the co-event formulation. State-vectors (...) appear as the initial state that enters into the quantum measure. While the PBR argument goes through up to a point, the failure to meet some of the assumptions they made does not allow one to reach their conclusion. However, the author believes that the “statistical interpretation” is still impossible for co-events even if this is not proven by the PBR argument. (shrink)

Eugene Wigner and others have speculated that the “collapse of the state vector” during an observation might be a physically real process so that some modification of current quantum theory would be required to describe the interaction with a conscious observer appropriately.Experimental reports on the “psychokinetic effect” as a mental influence on the outcome of quantum jumps suggest that perhaps this effect might be vital for an understanding of the observer's role in quantum mechanics.Combining these two speculations we (...) introduce a reduction principle that provides for the gradual reduction of a macroscopically ambiguous state and allows simultaneously for the occurrence of some psychokinetic effect in the process of observation.The resulting model leads to many of the paradoxical, but logically consistent, features of the psychokinetic effect that have been reported, and makes further testable predictions.The model does not touch on the more profound questions of consciousness. But the model implies that the result of a conscious observation, the collapse of the state vector, becomes accessible to the experimenter, with the psychokinetic effect as probe: Whether Schrödinger's cat has not or has collapsed the state vector determines whether or not the later human observer can still exert a psychokinetic influence on the result. (shrink)

It is argued by means of analogy with certain irreversible processes that a symmetry-violating vacuum need not necessarily be explained by a special cosmic initial condition.

We apply the distinction between parameter independence and outcome independence to the linear and nonlinear models of a recent nonrelativistic theory of continuous state vector reduction. We show that in the nonlinear model there is a set of realizations of the stochastic process that drives the state vector reduction for which parameter independence is violated for parallel spin components in the EPR-Bohm setup. Such a set has an appreciable probability of occurrence (≈ 1/2). On the other (...) hand, the linear model exhibits only extremely small parameter dependence effects. We investigate some specific features of the models and we recall that, as has been pointed out recently, if one wants to be able to speak of definite outcomes (or equivalently of possessed objective elements of reality) at finite times, one has to slightly change the criteria for their attribution to physical systems. The concluding section is devoted to a detailed discussion of the difficulties which one meets when one tries to take, as a starting point for the formulation of a relativistic theory, a nonrelativistic scheme which exhibits parameter dependence. Here we derive a theorem which identifies the precise sense in which the occurrence of parameter dependence forbids a genuinely relativistic generalization. Finally we show how the appreciable parameter dependence of the nonlinear model gives rise to problems with relativity, while the extremely weak parameter dependence of the linear model does not give rise to any difficulty, provided one takes into account the appropriate criteria for the attribution of definite outcomes. (shrink)

We consider a representation of the state reduction which depends neither on its reality nor on the details of when and how it emerges. Then by means of the representation we find necessary conditions, even if not the sufficient ones, for a decomposition of the state vector space to be a solution to the basis problem. The conditions are that the decomposition should be Lorentz invariant and orthogonal and that the associated projections should be continuous. They are (...) shown to be able to determine a decomposition in each of a few examples considered if the other circumstances are taken into account together. (shrink)

A two boundary quantum mechanics incorporating a big bang/big crunch universe is carefully considered. After a short motivation of the concept we address the central question how a proposed a-causal quantum universe can be consistent with what is known about macroscopia and how it might find experimental support.

By following the analysis of De Caro and Garuccio [Phys. Rev. A 54, 174 (1996)], we show that the factorable state vector produced with a beam-splitter set on the paths of parametric down-converted photons violates some new inequalities that we deduce from local realism. These inequalities are more stringent than those used up to now in the discussion of such phenomena.

Excerpt from Vector Analysis and the Theory of Relativity One of the most striking effects of the publication of Einstein's papers on generalized relativity and of the discussions which arose in connection with the subsequent astronomical observations was to make students of physics renew their study of mathematics. At first they attempted to learn simply the technique, but soon there was a demand to understand more; real mathematical insight was sought. Unfortunately there were no books available, not even papers. (...) Dr. Murnaghan's little book is a most successful attempt to supply what is a definite need. Every physicist can read it with profit. He will learn the meaning of a vector for the first time. He will learn methods which are available for every field of mathematical physics. He will see which of the processes used by Einstein and others are strictly mathematical and which are physical. Every chapter is illuminating, and the treatment of the subject is that of a student of mathematics and is not developed ad hoc. The extension of surface and line integrals is most interesting for physicists and the discussion of the space relations in a four-dimensional geometry is one most needed. This is specially true concerning the case of point-symmetry which forms the basis of Einstein's formulae for gravitation as applied to the solar system. I feel personally that I owe to this book a great debt. I have read it with care and shall read it again. It has given me a definiteness of understanding which I never had before, and a vision of a field of knowledge which before was remote. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

In this paper I provide an ontology for the co‐variant vectors, contra‐variant vectors and tensors that are familiar from General Relativity. This ontology is developed in response to a problem that Timothy Maudlin uses to argue against universals in the interpretation of physics. The problem is that if vector quantities are universals then there should be a way of identifying the same vector quantity at two different places, but there is no absolute identification of vector quantities, merely (...) a path‐relative one.My solution to the problem is to use the mathematical characterization of vectors as differential operators on scalar fields. On the proposed hypothesis a scalar field is a conjunctive state of affairs, and vector and tensor fields are relations instantiated by scalar fields. (shrink)

Mass vaccination has been a successful public health strategy for many contagious diseases. The immunity of the vaccinated also protects others who cannot be safely or effectively vaccinated—including infants and the immunosuppressed. When vaccination rates fall, diseases like measles can rapidly resurge in a population. Those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons are at the highest risk of severe disease and death. They thus may bear the burden of others' freedom to opt out of vaccination. It is often asked (...) whether it is legitimate for states to adopt and enforce mandatory universal vaccination. Yet this neglects a related question: are those who opt out, where it is permitted, morally responsible when others are harmed or die as a result of their decision? In this article, we argue that individuals who opt out of vaccination are morally responsible for resultant harms to others. Using measles as our main example, we demonstrate the ways in which opting out of vaccination can result in a significant risk of harm and death to others, especially infants and the immunosuppressed. We argue that imposing these risks without good justification is blameworthy and examine ways of reaching a coherent understanding of individual moral responsibility for harms in the context of the collective action required for disease transmission. Finally, we consider several objections to this view, provide counterarguments and suggest morally permissible alternatives to mandatory universal vaccination including controlled infection, self-imposed social isolation and financial penalties for refusal to vaccinate. (shrink)

Elementary particles are considered as local oscillators under the influence of zeropoint fields. Such oscillatory behavior of the particles leads to the deviations in their path of motion. The oscillations of the particle in general may be considered as complex rotations in complex vector space. The local particle harmonic oscillator is analyzed in the complex vector formalism considering the algebra of complex vectors. The particle spin is viewed as zeropoint angular momentum represented by a bivector. It has been (...) shown that the particle spin plays an important role in the kinematical intrinsic or local motion of the particle. From the complex vector formalism of harmonic oscillator, for the first time, a relation between mass $m$ and bivector spin $S$ has been derived in the form $\varvec{\sigma }_3 mc^2{\mathcal {J}}_{\pm } =\lambda \Omega _{\mathbf{s}} \cdot \mathrm{{S}} {\mathcal {J}}_{\pm }$ . Where, $\Omega _{s}$ is the angular velocity bivector of complex rotations, $c$ is the velocity of light. The unit vector $\varvec{\sigma }_3$ acts as an operator on the idempotents ${\mathcal {J}}_{+}$ and ${\mathcal {J}}_{-}$ to give the eigen values $\lambda =\pm 1.$ The constant $\lambda $ represents two fold nature of the equation corresponding to particle and antiparticle states. Further the above relation shows that the mass of the particle may be interpreted as a local spatial complex rotation in the rest frame. This gives an insight into the nature of fundamental particles. When a particle is observed from an arbitrary frame of reference, it has been shown that the spatial complex rotation dictates the relativistic particle motion. The mathematical structure of complex vectors in space and spacetime is developed. (shrink)

A passive brain–computer interface based upon functional near-infrared spectroscopy brain signals is used for earlier detection of human drowsiness during driving tasks. This BCI modality acquired hemodynamic signals of 13 healthy subjects from the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain. Drowsiness activity is recorded using a continuous-wave fNIRS system and eight channels over the right DPFC. During the experiment, sleep-deprived subjects drove a vehicle in a driving simulator while their cerebral oxygen regulation state was continuously measured. Vector (...) phase analysis was used as a classifier to detect drowsiness state along with sleep stage-based threshold criteria. Extensive training and testing with various feature sets and classifiers are done to justify the adaptation of threshold criteria for any subject without requiring recalibration. Three statistical features along with six VPA features were used. The average accuracies for the five classifiers are 90.9% for discriminant analysis, 92.5% for support vector machines, 92.3% for nearest neighbors, 92.4% for both decision trees, and ensembles over all subjects’ data. Trajectory slopes of CORE vector magnitude and angle: m and m are the best-performing features, along with ensemble classifier with the highest accuracy of 95.3% and minimum computation time of 40 ms. The statistical significance of the results is validated with a p-value of less than 0.05. The proposed passive BCI scheme demonstrates a promising technique for online drowsiness detection using VPA along with sleep stage classification. (shrink)

The 2017 codetection of electromagnetic radiation and gravitational waves was the first of its kind and marked the beginning of multimessenger astronomy. But this event has been treated within recent literature as something of an end as well. The 2017 detection is often regarded as an instance of falsification for all theories of modified gravity which postulate gravitational waves propagate along separate geodesics from electromagnetic radiation, perhaps most notably Jacob Bekenstein’s Tensor-Vector-Scalar gravity. I critically examine this explicit endorsement of (...) falsification by astronomers and astrophysicists. While the current state of multimetric modified gravity theories is dim, recent developments in multimessenger observation do not offer a deductive falsification. Rather such evidence should be regarded as a corroboration of the null hypothesis, following Deborah Mayo's error-statistical account. (shrink)

Quantum theory has the property of “local tomography”: the state of any composite system can be reconstructed from the statistics of measurements on the individual components. In this respect the holism of quantum theory is limited. We consider in this paper a class of theories more holistic than quantum theory in that they are constrained only by “bilocal tomography”: the state of any composite system is determined by the statistics of measurements on pairs of components. Under a few (...) auxiliary assumptions, we derive certain general features of such theories. In particular, we show how the number of state parameters can depend on the number of perfectly distinguishable states. We also show that real-vector-space quantum theory, while not locally tomographic, is bilocally tomographic. (shrink)

The state of globalization that modern humanity has entered, translates the problem of morality from the plan of choosing an individual into a social and even planetary context. This brings us back to the original moral concept of P. Teillard de Chardin, which is the subject of analysis in this article.

We consider a model of the state evolution of relativistic vector bosons, which includes both the dynamical equations for the particle four-velocity and the equations for the polarization four-vector evolution in the field of a nonlinear plane gravitational wave. In addition to the gravitational minimal coupling, tidal forces linear in curvature tensor are suggested to drive the particle state evolution. The exact solutions of the evolutionary equations are obtained. Birefringence and tidal deviations from the geodesic motion (...) are discussed. (shrink)

To experience is to undergo a process, to be in a state of receiving input which affords information about our environment. For highly developed beings like ourselves, the inputs determining states of conscious sensory perception are among the most important for our survival. At first glance, these states seem relational, each being a situation wherein a percipient X is passively conscious of something Y--its object, subject-matter, or content--without any apparent effort. Of course, the briefest reflection convinces us that despite (...) a seemingly passive reception of data from without, a good deal of interpretation goes into the making of perceptual judgments, as evidenced by their wide variance in the face of like sensory stimulation. One person looking at the slope of a mountain notices a patch of whitish stones; another sees a flock of sheep grazing. They are distinguished by their different reactions to similar input, whether or not these are best construed as inferences, interpretations, or, simply, differing degrees of attentiveness. (shrink)

We develop a vector space semantics for verb phrase ellipsis with anaphora using type-driven compositional distributional semantics based on the Lambek calculus with limited contraction of Jäger. Distributional semantics has a lot to say about the statistical collocation based meanings of content words, but provides little guidance on how to treat function words. Formal semantics on the other hand, has powerful mechanisms for dealing with relative pronouns, coordinators, and the like. Type-driven compositional distributional semantics brings these two models together. (...) We review previous compositional distributional models of relative pronouns, coordination and a restricted account of ellipsis in the DisCoCat framework of Coecke et al. :1079–1100, 2013). We show how DisCoCat cannot deal with general forms of ellipsis, which rely on copying of information, and develop a novel way of connecting typelogical grammar to distributional semantics by assigning vector interpretable lambda terms to derivations of LCC in the style of Muskens and Sadrzadeh Logical aspects of computational linguistics, Springer, Berlin, 2016). What follows is an account of ellipsis in which word meanings can be copied: the meaning of a sentence is now a program with non-linear access to individual word embeddings. We present the theoretical setting, work out examples, and demonstrate our results with a state of the art distributional model on an extended verb disambiguation dataset. (shrink)

The limitation on the sharing of entanglement is a basic feature of quantum theory. For example, if two qubits are completely entangled with each other, neither of them can be at all entangled with any other object. In this paper we show, at least for a certain standard definition of entanglement, that this feature is lost when one replaces the usual complex vector space of quantum states with a real vector space. Moreover, the difference between the two theories (...) is extreme: in the real-vector-space theory, there exist states of arbitrarily many binary objects, “rebits,” in which every rebit in the system is maximally entangled with each of the other rebits. (shrink)

We propose a novel edge detector in the presence of Gaussian noise with the use of proximal support vector machine (PSVM). The edges of a noisy image are detected using a two-stage architecture: smoothing of image is first performed using regularized anisotropic diffusion, followed by the classification using PSVM, termed as regularized anisotropic diffusion-based PSVM (RAD-PSVM) method. In this process, a feature vector is formed for a pixel using the denoised coefficient’s class and the local orientations to detect (...) edges in all possible directions in images. From the experiments, conducted on both synthetic and benchmark images, it is observed that our RAD-PSVM approach outperforms the other state-of-the-art edge detection approaches, both qualitatively and quantitatively. (shrink)

John and Curran have convincingly shown that Scanlonian contractualism is a valuable resource for evaluating pandemic response policies, and that we should reject cost–benefit analysis in favour of a contractualist framework. However, they fail to consider the part of contractualism that Scanlon constructed precisely to deal with the question of when the state can restrict individuals from making choices that are harmful to themselves and others: the value of choice view. In doing so, they leave it open for opponents (...) of lockdowns to misuse contractualism to justify mistaken policies. This is because the most powerful contractualist objections to locking down are likely to be based on the VoC. When we apply the value of choice view, we see that a lockdown policy’s justifiability depends on the extent to which particular values of choice are found to be threatened by the policy in question, and what safeguards policy-makers have put in place to increase the value of choice and protect people from the harmful consequences of lockdown. Without the VoC, it is harder to explain why lockdowns, to be non-rejectable, must have certain features. With the VoC, the case for contractualism over cost benefit analysis can be made even stronger. (shrink)

Some interpretations of quantum mechanics regard a mixed quantum state as a ensemble, each individual member of which has a definite but unknown state vector. Other interpretations ascribe a state vector only to anensemble of similarly prepared systems, but not to anindividual. Previous attempts to detect the hypothetical individual state vectors have failed, essentially because the state operator enters the relevant equations linearly. An example from nonlinear dynamics, in which a density matrix enters (...) nonlinearly, is examined because it might appear to circumvent this difficulty. However, it is shown that the hypothetical individual state vectors can not be detected this way, so the adequacy of theensemble interpretation survives a critical test. (shrink)

ObjectiveType 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a high risk of cognitive decline and dementia, but the underlying mechanisms are not yet clearly understood. This study aimed to explore the functional connectivity (FC) and topological properties among whole brain networks and correlations with impaired cognition and distinguish T2DM from healthy controls (HC) to identify potential biomarkers for cognition abnormalities.MethodsA total of 80 T2DM and 55 well-matched HC were recruited in this study. Subjects’ clinical data, neuropsychological tests and resting-state functional magnetic (...) resonance imaging data were acquired. Whole-brain network FC were mapped, the topological characteristics were analyzed using a graph-theoretic approach, the FC and topological characteristics of the network were compared between T2DM and HC using a general linear model, and correlations between networks and clinical and cognitive characteristics were identified. The support vector machine (SVM) model was used to identify differences between T2DM and HC.ResultsIn patients with T2DM, FC was higher in two core regions [precuneus/posterior cingulated cortex (PCC)_1 and later prefrontal cortex_1] in the default mode network and lower in bilateral superior parietal lobes (within dorsal attention network), and decreased between the right medial frontal cortex and left auditory cortex. The FC of the right frontal medial-left auditory cortex was positively correlated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scales and negatively correlated with the blood glucose levels. Long-range connectivity between bilateral auditory cortex was missing in the T2DM. The nodal degree centrality and efficiency of PCC were higher in T2DM than in HC (P < 0.005). The nodal degree centrality in the PCC in the SVM model was 97.56% accurate in distinguishing T2DM patients from HC, demonstrating the reliability of the prediction model.ConclusionFunctional abnormalities in the auditory cortex in T2DM may be related to cognitive impairment, such as memory and attention, and nodal degree centrality in the PCC might serve as a potential neuroimaging biomarker to predict and identify T2DM. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to show that the mathematics of quantum mechanics is the mathematics of set partitions linearized to vector spaces, particularly in Hilbert spaces. That is, the math of QM is the Hilbert space version of the math to describe objective indefiniteness that at the set level is the math of partitions. The key analytical concepts are definiteness versus indefiniteness, distinctions versus indistinctions, and distinguishability versus indistinguishability. The key machinery to go from indefinite to more (...) definite states is the partition join operation at the set level that prefigures at the quantum level projective measurement as well as the formation of maximally-definite state descriptions by Dirac’s Complete Sets of Commuting Operators. This development is measured quantitatively by logical entropy at the set level and by quantum logical entropy at the quantum level. This follow-the-math approach supports the Literal Interpretation of QM—as advocated by Abner Shimony among others which sees a reality of objective indefiniteness that is quite different from the common sense and classical view of reality as being “definite all the way down”. (shrink)

The quantum state of a d-dimensional system can be represented by a probability distribution over the d 2 outcomes of a Symmetric Informationally Complete Positive Operator Valued Measure (SIC-POVM), and then this probability distribution can be represented by a vector of $\mathbb {R}^{d^{2}-1}$ in a (d 2−1)-dimensional simplex, we will call this set of vectors $\mathcal{Q}$ . Other way of represent a d-dimensional system is by the corresponding Bloch vector also in $\mathbb {R}^{d^{2}-1}$ , we will call (...) this set of vectors $\mathcal{B}$ . In this paper it is proved that with the adequate scaling $\mathcal{B}=\mathcal{Q}$ . Also we indicate some features of the shape of $\mathcal{Q}$. (shrink)

An effective approach is introduced to predict the magnitude of reservoir-triggered earthquake, based on support vector machines and fuzzy support vector machines methods. The main influence factors on RTE, including lithology, rock mass integrity, fault features, tectonic stress state, and seismic activity background in reservoir area, are categorized into 11 parameters and quantified by using analytical hierarchy process. Dataset on 100 reservoirs in China, including the 48 well-documented cases of RTE, are collected and used to train and (...) validate the prediction models established with SVM and FSVM, respectively. Through numerical tests, it is found that both the SVM and FSVM models are effective in the prediction of the magnitude of RTE with high accuracy, provided that sufficient samples are collected. While the results of FSVM which is extended from SVM by introducing a fuzzy membership to reduce the influence of noises or outliers are found to be slightly less accurate than those of SVM in the current analysis of RTE cases. The reason might be attributed to the high discreteness of the sample data in the current study. (shrink)

A common approach to quantum physics is enshrouded in a jargon which treats state vectors as attributes of physical systems and the concept of state preparation as a filtration scheme wherein a process involving measurement selects from a primordial assembly of systems those bearing some prescribed vector of interest. By contrast, the empirical experiences with which quantum theory is actually concerned relate measurement and preparation in quite an opposite manner. Reproducible preparation schemes are logically and temporally anterior (...) to measurement acts. Measurement extracts numbers from systems prepared in a specified manner; these data are then regularized by the theory by means of a state concept which is in turn used to characterize succinctly the given mode of preparation. The present paper offers, in a simple spin model, a method for determining the quantum state that represents any reproducible preparation. (shrink)

The grounding of semiotics in the finiteness of cognition is extended into constructs and methods for analysis by incorporating the assumption that cognition can be similar within and between agents. After examining and formalizing cognitive similarity as an ontological commitment, the recurrence of cognitive states is examined in terms of a “cognitive set.” In the individual, the cognitive set is seen as evolving under the bidirectional, cyclical determination of thought by the historical environment. At the population level, the distributed “global” (...) cognitive set is argued to be constrained to a manifold in which the cognition of individuals is determined only when their cognitive sets meet certain conditions in the world: a result seen as consistent with Lotman’s semiosphere. With these foundations in place, dimensional modelling of the semiosic field is inaugurated. Firstly, measures of cognitive similarity are formalized as cognitive “distance” and on this basis the concept of a semiotic vector is defined. Secondly, semiotic vectors are seen to shape a general pattern of oscillation in semiosis, and thus to imply zero points in semiosic potential. Thirdly, semiosic oscillation in individual agents is shown to be consistent with a novel diachronic or longitudinal interpretation of Greimas’ semiotic square expanded into a “semiotic pipe” in which cognition traverses an n-dimensional space structured by axes of oscillation. Finally, the expanded theory of finite semiotics is advanced as a useful basis for two new complementary disciplines: a computational, mathematical science of “natural semiotic processing” to trace and model semiotic vectors and oscillation; and an ethical, rhetorical art of “technological influencing” to guide its inputs and applications. (shrink)

Quantum probability (QP) theory can be seen as a type of vector symbolic architecture (VSA): mental states are vectors storing structured information and manipulated using algebraic operations. Furthermore, the operations needed by QP match those in other VSAs. This allows existing biologically realistic neural models to be adapted to provide a mechanistic explanation of the cognitive phenomena described in the target article by Pothos & Busemeyer (P&B).

Lithium-ion batteries have been widely used as energy storage systems and in electric vehicles due to their desirable balance of both energy and power densities as well as continual falling price. Accurate estimation of the state-of-charge of a battery pack is important in managing the health and safety of battery packs. This paper proposes a compact radial basis function neural model to estimate the state-of-charge of lithium battery packs. Firstly, a suitable input set strongly correlated with the package (...) SOC is identified from directly measured voltage, current, and temperature signals by a fast recursive algorithm. Secondly, a RBF neural model for battery pack SOC estimation is constructed using the FRA strategy to prune redundant hidden layer neurons. Then, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to optimize the kernel parameters. Finally, a conventional RBF neural network model, an improved RBF neural model using the two stage method, and a least squares support vector machine model are also used to estimate the battery SOC as a comparative study. Simulation results show that generalization error of SOC estimation using the novel RBF neural network model is less than half of that using other methods. Furthermore, the model training time is much less than the LSSVM method and the improved RBF neural model using the two-stage method. (shrink)

PurposeThe primary angle-closure glaucoma is an irreversible blinding eye disease in the world. Previous neuroimaging studies demonstrated that PACG patients were associated with cerebral changes. However, the effect of optic atrophy on local and remote brain functional connectivity in PACG patients remains unknown.Materials and MethodsIn total, 23 patients with PACG and 23 well-matched Health Controls were enrolled in our study and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. The regional homogeneity method and functional connectivity method were used to evaluate (...) the local and remote brain functional connectivity. Moreover, support vector machine method was applied to constructing PACG classification model.ResultsCompared with the HC, PACG patients showed increased ReHo values in right cerebellum _8, left CER_4-5, and right CER_8. In contrast, PACG patients showed decreased ReHo values in the bilateral lingual gyrus /calcarine /superior occipital gyrus and right postcentral gyrus. The ReHo value exhibited an accuracy of 91.30% and area under curve of 0.95 for distinguishing the PACG patients from HC.ConclusionOur study demonstrated that the PACG patients showed abnormal ReHo value in the cerebellum, visual cortex, and supplementary motor area, which might be reflect the neurological mechanisms underlying vision loss and eye pain in PACG patients. Moreover, the ReHo values can be used as a useful biomarker for distinguishing the PACG patients from HCs. (shrink)

Anthropogenic climate change is causing temperature rise in temperate zones resulting in climate conditions more similar to subtropical zones. As a result, rising temperatures increase the range of disease-carrying insects to new areas outside of subtropical zones, and increased precipitation causes flooding that is more hospitable for vector breeding. State governments, the federal government, and governmental agencies, like the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of USDA and the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System of the U.S. Centers for (...) Disease Control and Prevention, lack a coordinated plan for vector-borne disease accompanying climate change. APHIS focuses its surveillance primarily on the effect of illness on agricultural production, while NNDSS focuses on the emergence of pathogens affecting human health. This article provides an analysis of the current framework of surveillance of, and response to, vector-borne infectious diseases, the impacts of climate change on the spread of vector-borne infectious diseases, and recommends changes to federal law to address these threats. (shrink)

The central problem in the quantum theory of measurement, how to describe the process of state reduction in terms of the quantum mechanical formalism, is solved on the basis of the relativity of quantal states, which implies that once the apparatus is detected in a well-defined state, the object state must reduce to a corresponding one. This is a process termed by Schrödinger disentanglement. Here, it is essential to observe that Renninger's negative result does constitute an actual (...) measurement process. From this point of view, Heisenberg's interpretation of his microscope experiment and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen arguments are reinvestigated. Satisfactory discussions are given to various experimental situations, such as the Stern-Gerlach-type experiment, successive measurements, macroscopic measurements, and Schrödinger's cat. Finally it is proposed to regard a state vector in quantum mechanics as an irreducible physical construct, in Margenau's sense, that is not further analyzable both mathematically and conceptually. (shrink)

Objective: Patients with hypochondriasis hold unexplainable beliefs and a fear of having a lethal disease, with poor compliances and treatment response to psychotropic drugs. Although several studies have demonstrated that patients with hypochondriasis demonstrate abnormalities in brain structure and function, gray matter volume and functional connectivity in hypochondriasis still remain unclear.Methods: The present study collected T1-weighted and resting-state functional magnetic resonance images from 21 hypochondriasis patients and 22 well-matched healthy controls. We first analyzed the difference in the GMV between (...) the two groups. We then used the regions showing a difference in GMV between two groups as seeds to perform functional connectivity analysis. Finally, a support vector machine was applied to the imaging data to distinguish hypochondriasis patients from HCs.Results: Compared with the HCs, the hypochondriasis group showed decreased GMV in the left precuneus, and increased GMV in the left medial frontal gyrus. FC analyses revealed decreased FC between the left medial frontal gyrus and cuneus, and between the left precuneus and cuneus. A combination of both GMV and FC in the left precuneus, medial frontal gyrus, and cuneus was able to discriminate the hypochondriasis patients from HCs with a sensitivity of 0.98, specificity of 0.93, and accuracy of 0.95.Conclusion: Our study suggests that smaller left precuneus volumes and decreased FC between the left precuneus and cuneus seem to play an important role of hypochondriasis. Future studies are needed to confirm whether this finding is generalizable to patients with hypochondriasis. (shrink)

In quantum mechanics, the state of an individual particle (or system) is unobservable, i.e., it cannot be determined experimentally, even in principle. However, the notion of “measuring a state” is meaningful if it refers to anensemble of similarly prepared particles, i.e., the question may be addressed: Is it possible to determine experimentally the state operator (density matrix) into which a given preparation procedure puts particles. After reviewing the previous work on this problem, we give simple procedures, in (...) the line of Lamb's operational interpretation of quantum mechanics, for measuring a translational state operator (whether pure or mixed), via its Wigner function. These procedures closely parallel methods that might be used in classical mechanics to determine a true phase space probability distribution; thus, the Wigner function simulates such a distribution not only formally, but operationally also. There is no way to determine what the wave function (or state vector) of a system is—if arbitrarily given, there is no way to “measure” its wave function. Clearly, such a measurement would have to result in afunction of several variables, not in a relatively small set ofnumbers .... In order to verify the [quantum] theory in its generality, at least a succession of two measurements are needed. There is in general no way to determine the original state of the system, but having produced a definite state by a first measurement, the probabilities of the outcomes of a second measurement are then given by the theory.E. P. Wigner(1). (shrink)

With the widespread application of electric vehicles, the study of the power lithium-ion battery has broad prospects and great academic significance. The state of charge is one of the key parts in battery management system, which is used to provide guarantee for the safe and efficient operation of LIB. To obtain the reliable SOC estimation result under the influence of simple model and measurement noise, a novel estimation method with adaptive feedback compensator is presented in this paper. The simplified (...) dynamic external electrical characteristic of LIB is represented by the one-order Thevenin equivalent circuit model and then the ECM parameters are identified by the forgetting factor recursive least squares method. Fully taking into account the feedback effect of terminal voltage innovation, the combination of adaptive extended Kalman filter and innovation vector-based proportional-integral-derivative feedback is proposed to estimate the LIB SOC. The common single proportional feedback of Kalman filter is replaced by the innovation vector-based PID feedback, which means that the multiple prior terminal voltage innovation is used in the measurement correction step of KF. The results reveal that the AEKF with PID feedback compensation strategy can improve the SOC estimation performance compared with the common AEKF, and it reveals good robust capability and rapid convergence speed for initial SOC errors. The maximum absolute error and average absolute error for SOC estimation are close to 4% and 2.6%, respectively. (shrink)

From the very beginning, coherent state path integrals have always relied on a coherent state resolution of unity for their construction. By choosing an inadmissible fiducial vector, a set of “coherent states” spans the same space but loses its resolution of unity, and for that reason has been called a set of weak coherent states. Despite having no resolution of unity, it is nevertheless shown how the propagator in such a basis may admit a phase-space path integral (...) representation in essentially the same form as if it had a resolution of unity. Our examples are toy models of similar situations that arise in current studies of quantum gravity. (shrink)

Canonical economic agents act so as to maximize a single, representative, utility function. However, there is accumulating evidence that heterogeneity in thought processes may be an important determinant of individual behavior. This paper investigates the implications of a vector-valued generalization of the Expected Utility paradigm, which permits agents either to deliberate as per Homo economics, or to act impulsively. This generalized decision theory is applied to explain the crowding-out effect, irrational educational investment decisions, persistent social inequalities, the pervasive influence (...) of non-cognitive ability on socio-economic outcomes, and the dynamic relationships between non-cognitive ability, cognitive ability, and behavioral biases. These results suggest that the generalized decision theory warrants further investigation. (shrink)

Neurofeedback has been suggested as a potential complementary therapy to different psychiatric disorders. Of interest for this approach is the prediction of individual performance and outcomes. In this study, we applied functional connectivity-based modeling using electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) modalities to (i) investigate whether resting-state connectivity predicts performance during an affective neurofeedback task and (ii) evaluate the extent to which predictive connectivity profiles are correlated across EEG and fNIRS techniques. The fNIRS oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin concentrations and (...) the EEG beta and gamma bands modulated by the alpha frequency band (beta-m-alpha and gamma-m-alpha, respectively) recorded over the frontal cortex of healthy subjects were used to estimate functional connectivity from each neuroimaging modality. For each connectivity matrix, relevant edges were selected in a leave-one-subject-out procedure, summed into “connectivity summary scores” (CSS), and submitted as inputs to a support vector regressor (SVR). Then, the performance of the left-out-subject was predicted using the trained SVR model. Linear relationships between the CSS across both modalities were evaluated using Pearson’s correlation. The predictive model showed a mean absolute error smaller than 20%, and the fNIRS oxyhemoglobin CSS was significantly correlated with the EEG gamma-m-alpha CSS (r = −0.456, p = 0.030). These results support that pre-task electrophysiological and hemodynamic resting-state connectivity are potential predictors of neurofeedback performance and are meaningfully coupled. This investigation motivates the use of joint EEG-fNIRS connectivity as outcome predictors, as well as a tool for functional connectivity coupling investigation. (shrink)

For any unit vector in an inner product space S, we define a mapping on the system of all ⊥-closed subspaces of S, F(S), whose restriction on the system of all splitting subspaces of S, E(S), is always a finitely additive state. We show that S is complete iff at least one such mapping is a finitely additive state on F(S). Moreover, we give a completeness criterion via the existence of a regular finitely additive state on (...) appropriate systems of subspaces. Finally, the result will be generalized to general inner product spaces. (shrink)

The present article deals with an observer design for nonlinear vehicle lateral dynamics. The contributions of the article concern the nonconsideration of any force model and the consideration that the longitudinal velocity is time varying, which is more realistic than the assumption that it is constant. The vehicle model is then represented by an exact Takagi–Sugeno model via the sector nonlinearity transformation. A proportional multiple integral observer based on the TS model is designed to estimate simultaneously the state (...) class='Hi'>vector and the unknown input. The convergence conditions of the estimation error are expressed under LMI formulation using the Lyapunov theory, which guaranties a bounded error. Simulations are carried out for comparison between the conventional PI observer, the enhanced PI observer, and the PMI observer. Finally, experimental results are provided to illustrate the performances of the proposed PMI observer. (shrink)

The purpose of the article is to analyze the identity policy implemented within the Union State of Belarus and Russia and determine the ways of its improving. Methods and materials: materials include acts of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and materials from Russian and Belarusian media; the methodological basis was laid by general scientific methods (system analysis, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, ascent from the individual to the general, synthesis, comparative method) and special legal (...) and political science scientific methods (formal legal method, method of legal hermeneutics, institutional-functional and system-structural approaches, content analysis method). Results and conclusions: the formation of the Union State of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation is inscribed in a complex multilevel context of international and domestic political processes, which co-determine opportunities and settle limitations for the unification strategies. The authors analyze the international and domestic factors that determine the slow character of the integration process. The authors propose one of the possible integration vectors. This vector assumes implementing a multi-level identity policy, which aims at forming a coherent political community at the heart of the Union State and needs today comprehensive development and legal and institutional support. The authors show that implementing this policy is possible only within the framework of the citizenship development. The article formulates some directions of this policy, which currently have not fully revealed their unifying potential and need further improvement. (shrink)

The facticity view of fundamental laws of physics takes them to state facts about reality. To preserve the facticity of laws in the face of complex phenomena with multiple intervening factors, composition of causes, often by vector addition, is invoked. However, this addition should be read only as a metaphor, for only the resultant force is real. The truth and the explanatory power of laws can both be preserved by viewing laws as describing causal powers that objects possess, (...) but this view would require a new account of explanation. (shrink)