Generalizing Quantum Mechanics for Quantum Gravity

`How do our ideas about quantum mechanics affect our understanding of spacetime?' This familiar question leads to quantum gravity. The complementary question is also important: `How do our ideas about spacetime affect our understanding of quantum mechanics?' This short abstract of a talk given at the Gafka2004 conference contains a very brief summary of some of the author's papers on generalizations of quantum mechanics needed for quantum gravity. The need for generalization is motivated. The generalized quantum theory framework for such generalizations is described and illustrated for usual quantum mechanics and a number of examples to which it does not apply. These include spacetime alternatives extended over time, time-neutral quantum theory, quantum field theory in fixed background spacetime not foliable by spacelike surfaces, and systems with histories that move both forward and backward in time. A fully four-dimensional, sum-over-histories generalized quantum theory of cosmological geometries is briefly described. The usual formulation of quantum theory in terms of states evolving unitarily through spacelike surfaces is an approximation to this more general framework that is appropriate in the late universe for coarse-grained descriptions of geometry in which spacetime behaves classically. This abstract is unlikely to be clear on its own, but references are provided to the author's works where the ideas can be followed up.Comment: 8 pages, LATEX, a very brief abstract of much wor

Five seconds or sixty? Presentation time in expert memory

The template theory presented in Gobet and Simon (1996a, 1998) is based on the EPAM theory (Feigenbaum & Simon, 1984; Richman et al., 1995), including the numerical parameters that have been estimated in tests of the latter; and it therefore offers precise predictions for the timing of cognitive processes during the presentation and recall of chess positions. This paper describes the behavior of CHREST, a computer implementation of the template theory, in a task when the presentation time is systematically varied from one second to sixty seconds, on the recall of both game and random positions, and compares the model to human data. As predicted by the model, strong players are better than weak players with both types of positions. Their superiority with random positions is especially clear with long presentation times, but is also present after brief presentation times, although smaller in absolute value. CHREST accounts for the data, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Strong players’ superiority with random positions is explained by the large number of chunks they hold in LTM. Strong players’ high recall percentage with short presentation times is explained by the presence of templates, a special class of chunks. The model is compared to other theories of chess skill, which either cannot account for the superiority of Masters with random positions (models based on high-level descriptions and on levels of processing) or predict too strong a performance of Masters with random positions (long-term working memory)

TVStoryGen: A Dataset for Generating Stories with Character Descriptions

We introduce TVStoryGen, a story generation dataset that requires generating detailed TV show episode recaps from a brief summary and a set of documents describing the characters involved. Unlike other story generation datasets, TVStoryGen contains stories that are authored by professional screen-writers and that feature complex interactions among multiple characters. Generating stories in TVStoryGen requires drawing relevant information from the lengthy provided documents about characters based on the brief summary. In addition, we propose to train reverse models on our dataset for evaluating the faithfulness of generated stories. We create TVStoryGen from fan-contributed websites, which allows us to collect 26k episode recaps with 1868.7 tokens on average. Empirically, we take a hierarchical story generation approach and find that the neural model that uses oracle content selectors for character descriptions demonstrates the best performance on automatic metrics, showing the potential of our dataset to inspire future research on story generation with constraints. Qualitative analysis shows that the best-performing model sometimes generates content that is unfaithful to the short summaries, suggesting promising directions for future work

U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework; A Guide to Self-Certification

[Excerpt] In this guide, we have provided an outline of the most critical pieces of the Safe Harbor Framework. The application is made available, along with a Helpful Hints Guide that explains how to fill it out. The Safe Harbor Principles and FAQs are also provided for easy reference. There is also an explanation and listing of third party dispute resolution providers (or Independent Resource Mechanisms) with descriptions of the services provided by three dispute resolution providers that work with Safe Harbor. Finally, we’ve also included several sample company privacy policies for reference, and a glossary that explains key terms. We’ve broken this Guide into nine major sections, each to address different questions you might have. What follows is a brief description of each section: Overview: The overview gives some background on the Safe Harbor Framework, how it came about, and explains many of the certification requirements. The overview also lists the principles of the Safe Harbor program. Application: The Application is provided for easy reference. Applicants should apply online at http://export.gov /safeharbor (click on “Certification Form” in the right sidebar). Certification Mark: The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration has recently developed a certification mark for the Safe Harbor Framework. The mark may be used by companies on their websites to signify that they have self-certified compliance with the provisions of the Safe Harbor Framework. Instructions for use of the certification mark are provided. Helpful Hints Guide (to Certification): The Helpful Hints Guide is meant to give quick answers to any questions a U.S. company might have about the certification process. It should be used in conjunction with the rest of the Guide, however it answers many of the most common questions about the certification process. Safe Harbor Principles: We have provided the full text of the official declaration of the Safe Harbor Principles as announced on July 21, 2000. This text is helpful for understanding the foundation of the Safe Harbor Principles and the Framework. Frequently Asked Questions: We have provided the Frequently Asked Questions in full text because they answer many of the most commonly asked questions about the Safe Harbor Framework. Dispute Resolution Providers: Here we have provided a short description of the role of dispute resolution providers (also referred to as Independent Recourse Mechanisms) and descriptions of the services they offer. Sample Privacy Policies: Here we have provided three sample privacy policies for reference, which may serve as guidance when creating a new Privacy Policy or updating an existing Privacy Policy to align it with the Safe Harbor Framework. The Safe Harbor Framework requires an affirmative commitment in the Privacy Policy to the principles of the Safe Harbor Framework. Glossary: A short glossary is also provided for many of the technical terms frequently used in the Guide

Hard times: young people’s and young parents’ experiences of living through poverty in Luton

This research report is primarily concerned with the experiences of young people (16-24 years) and young parents bringing up children within the context of poverty in Luton. It is divided into three sections. Part One provides a general overview of poverty research in the UK. Part Two presents the findings from the study of young people and young parents’ experiences of poverty in Luton. Part Three discusses the implications of the findings presented and recommendations that arise from them. The overview of research presented in part one of this report is organised under the following headings: measures of poverty commonly adopted in UK poverty research; the extent of poverty in the UK including a short discussion of gender and ethnicity; attitudes to poverty amongst the general public; the impacts of poverty on children and families; poverty amongst young people; parenting in poverty; patterns of poverty. Part two of the report provides a brief description of the methodology adopted for this study and the sample amongst whom the research was conducted. Key findings are then summarised. Following this a thematic analysis of interview data is presented. This covers the following themes: how participants defined poverty; how participants explained poverty; the images of ‘poor people’ participants employed; whether participants considered they or their families were poor; participants’ descriptions of living through poverty; what participants thought the Local Authority should do to tackle poverty. Part three presents a discussion of the implications of the findings from this study and the recommendations that arise from them

Discovery minutes teacher guide

Discovery Minutes is comprised of thirty, one-minute segments. This series focuses on science and social studies topics, such as Jefferson’s Monticello, the U.S. Space and Rocket Camp, the DNR research vessel Palmetto, and bigger-than-life backyard insects. The short, concise programs contain interesting content that could have many uses, such as in a weekly school news program. Discovery Minutes is a multi-curriculum series that is compatible with all grade levels. This guide gives brief descriptions of the short segments