Ambiguity and legal compliance

Research Summary: This study examines the independent and joint effect of ambiguity and perceived certainty of apprehension on law-breaking decision-making. Data come from a survey of experienced drivers (N = 1147) who viewed videos depicting a car speeding on an interstate highway under experimentally manipulated circumstances. The sampled drivers were generally ambiguity averse, opting to reduce speeding as ambiguity about the perceived certainty of apprehension increased. However, perceived ambiguity interacted with perceived certainty such that increases in ambiguity increased the deterrent effect of ambiguity for low certainty probabilities and decreased the effect for high probabilities. Policy Implications : Ambiguity may serve as a valuable tool for increasing the efficacy of crime-prevention strategies, especially for crimes with naturally low levels of risk. However, researchers should think carefully about the effects of ambiguity when analyzing the efficacy of certainty-based policies because the injection of ambiguity can both increase and decrease legal compliance. Also, discussed are the implications for a key function of policing —traffic safety. <br

Cloning by positive maps in von Neumann algebras

We investigate cloning in the general operator algebra framework in arbitrary dimension assuming only positivity instead of strong positivity of the cloning operation, generalizing thus results obtained so far under that stronger assumption. The weaker positivity assumption turns out quite natural when considering cloning in the general C∗-algebra framework

Local Quantum Measurement and No-Signaling Imply Quantum Correlations

We show that, assuming that quantum mechanics holds locally, the finite speed of information is the principle that limits all possible correlations between distant parties to be quantum mechanical as well. Local quantum mechanics means that a Hilbert space is assigned to each party, and then all local positive-operator-valued measurements are (in principle) available; however, the joint system is not necessarily described by a Hilbert space. In particular, we do not assume the tensor product formalism between the joint systems. Our result shows that if any experiment would give nonlocal correlations beyond quantum mechanics, quantum theory would be invalidated even locally.Comment: Published version. 5 pages, 1 figure

Discord and non-classicality in probabilistic theories

Quantum discord quantifies non-classical correlations in quantum states. We introduce discord for states in causal probabilistic theories, inspired by the original definition proposed in Ref. [17]. We show that the only probabilistic theory in which all states have null discord is classical probability theory. Non-null discord is then not just a quantum feature, but a generic signature of non-classicality.Comment: 5 pages, revtex styl

Bacteriology in Veterinary Practice

In the past undergraduates in veterinary medicine were not able to envisage any practical use for their laboratory training in bacteriology. When a practitioner required a cultural examination it was necessary to submit the specimen to an established laboratory and three or more days would elapse before a reply was received. There has been a marked change in this approach to bacteriology within the last few years and it is the purpose of this presentatioll to explain how bacteriological methods can be used in a clinical practice

Sanction risk perceptions, coherence, and deterrence

Research from environmental criminology, policing, and related literatures consistently finds that objective conditions related to risk of apprehension affect crime. The mechanism underlying this relationship is not explicitly tested; instead, perceptual deterrence is assumed. In this analysis we explicitly investigate that mechanism. This test is not straightforward, however, as some research shows that risk perceptions are susceptible to various cognitive biases and framing effects. Thus, we advance a framework of sanction risk perception that combines individual and contextual determinants. Specifically, we investigate whether contextual factors materially influence risk perceptions and in turn intentions to offend after accounting for the influence of individual‐specific determinants. Our data come from an experimental survey on speeding (N = 1,919). Respondents viewed videos from the driver's perspective of a sedan speeding on a highway and provided estimates of sanction risk, safety perceptions, and behavioral intentions. Although sanction risk and safety perceptions for speeding varied widely across respondents, they remained grounded in the objective conditions of the experimental videos. In turn, citizen perceptions of apprehension risk were comparable with risk estimates elicited from state troopers after viewing the same videos. The results suggest deterrence and safety considerations are important contributing factors that help shape intentions to transgress

Generalization of entanglement to convex operational theories: Entanglement relative to a subspace of observables

We define what it means for a state in a convex cone of states on a space of observables to be generalized-entangled relative to a subspace of the observables, in a general ordered linear spaces framework for operational theories. This extends the notion of ordinary entanglement in quantum information theory to a much more general framework. Some important special cases are described, in which the distinguished observables are subspaces of the observables of a quantum system, leading to results like the identification of generalized unentangled states with Lie-group-theoretic coherent states when the special observables form an irreducibly represented Lie algebra. Some open problems, including that of generalizing the semigroup of local operations with classical communication to the convex cones setting, are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, to appear in proceedings of Quantum Structures VII, Int. J. Theor. Phy

A violation of the uncertainty principle implies a violation of the second law of thermodynamics

Uncertainty relations state that there exist certain incompatible measurements, to which the outcomes cannot be simultaneously predicted. While the exact incompatibility of quantum measurements dictated by such uncertainty relations can be inferred from the mathematical formalism of quantum theory, the question remains whether there is any more fundamental reason for the uncertainty relations to have this exact form. What, if any, would be the operational consequences if we were able to go beyond any of these uncertainty relations? We give a strong argument that justifies uncertainty relations in quantum theory by showing that violating them implies that it is also possible to violate the second law of thermodynamics. More precisely, we show that violating the uncertainty relations in quantum mechanics leads to a thermodynamic cycle with positive net work gain, which is very unlikely to exist in nature.Comment: 8 pages, revte

Anonymous quantum communication

We present the first protocol for the anonymous transmission of a quantum state that is information-theoretically secure against an active adversary, without any assumption on the number of corrupt participants. The anonymity of the sender and receiver is perfectly preserved, and the privacy of the quantum state is protected except with exponentially small probability. Even though a single corrupt participant can cause the protocol to abort, the quantum state can only be destroyed with exponentially small probability: if the protocol succeeds, the state is transferred to the receiver and otherwise it remains in the hands of the sender (provided the receiver is honest).Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Proceedings of ASIACRYPT, 200

A generalized no-broadcasting theorem

We prove a generalized version of the no-broadcasting theorem, applicable to essentially \emph{any} nonclassical finite-dimensional probabilistic model satisfying a no-signaling criterion, including ones with ``super-quantum'' correlations. A strengthened version of the quantum no-broadcasting theorem follows, and its proof is significantly simpler than existing proofs of the no-broadcasting theorem.Comment: 4 page