Quantifier elimination in C*-algebras

The only C*-algebras that admit elimination of quantifiers in continuous logic are $\mathbb{C}, \mathbb{C}^2$, $C($Cantor space$)$ and $M_2(\mathbb{C})$. We also prove that the theory of C*-algebras does not have model companion and show that the theory of $M_n(\mathcal {O_{n+1}})$ is not $\forall\exists$-axiomatizable for any $n\geq 2$.Comment: More improvements and bug fixes. To appear in IMR

Forecasting age-related changes in breast cancer mortality among white and black US women: A functional approach

The disparity in breast cancer mortality rates among white and black US women is widening with higher mortality rates among black women. We apply functional time series models on age-specific breast cancer mortality rates for each group of women, and forecast their mortality curves using exponential smoothing state-space models with damping. The data were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program of the US (SEER, 2007). Mortality data were obtained from the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) available on the SEER*Stat database. We use annual unadjusted breast cancer mortality rates from 1969 to 2004 in 5-year age groups (45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84). Age-specific mortality curves were obtained using nonparametric smoothing methods. The curves are then decomposed using functional principal components and we fit functional time series models with four basis functions for each population separately. The curves from each population are forecast and prediction intervals are calculated. Twenty-year forecasts indicate an over-all decline in future breast cancer mortality rates for both groups of women. This decline is steeper among white women aged 55-73 and black women aged 60-84. For black women under 55 years of age, the forecast rates are relatively stable indicating no significant change in future breast cancer mortality rates among young black women in the next 20 years.Breast cancer mortality, racial and ethnic disparities, screening, trends, forecasting, functional data analysis

Local solutions in Sobolev spaces with negative indices for the "good" Boussinesq equation

We study the local well-posedness of the initial-value problem for the nonlinear "good" Boussinesq equation with data in Sobolev spaces \textit{$H^s$} for negative indices of $s$.Comment: Referee comments incorporate

The Neuroscience of Socioeconomic Status: Correlates, Causes, and Consequences

Neuroscience research on socioeconomic status (SES) has begun to characterize aspects of brain structure and function that vary with SES. This review summarizes our current state of knowledge concerning the neural correlates of SES, their likely consequences for human psychology and possible causes of these correlates, including relevant evidence from human and animal research concerning these causes. Challenges of research on the neuroscience of SES are discussed, and the relevance of this topic to neuroscience more generally is considered

Neuroethics and the Problem of Other Minds: Implications of Neuroscience for the Moral Status of Brain-Damaged Patients and Nonhuman Animals

Our ethical obligations to another being depend at least in part on that being\u27s capacity for a mental life. Our usual approach to inferring the mental state of another is to reason by analogy: If another being behaves as I do in a circumstance that engenders a certain mental state in me, I conclude that it has engendered the same mental state in him or her. Unfortunately, as philosophers have long noted, this analogy is fallible because behavior and mental states are only contingently related. If the other person is acting, for example, we could draw the wrong conclusion about his or her mental state. In this article I consider another type of analogy that can be drawn between oneself and another to infer the mental state of the other, substituting brain activity for behavior. According to most current views of the mind–body problem, mental states and brain states are non-contingently related, and hence inferences drawn with the new analogy are not susceptible to the alternative interpretations that plague the behavioral analogy. The implications of this approach are explored in two cases for which behavior is particularly unhelpful as a guide to mental status: severely brain–damaged patients who are incapable of intentional communicative behavior, and nonhuman animals whose behavioral repertoires are different from ours and who lack language

When we enhance cognition with Adderall, do we sacrifice creativity? A preliminary study

Rationale: Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts) is used by healthy normal individuals to enhance attention. Research with healthy normal participants and those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder indicate a possible inverse relationship between attentional function and creativity. This raises the possibility that Adderall could decrease creativity in people using it for cognitive enhancement. Objective: This study was designed to find out whether Adderall impairs creativity in healthy young adults. Material and methods: In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, the effects of Adderall on the performance of 16 healthy young adults were measured on four tests of creativity from the psychological literature: two tasks requiring divergent thought and two requiring convergent thought. Results: Adderall affected performance on the convergent tasks only, in one case enhancing it, particularly for lower performing individuals, and in the other case enhancing it for the lower-performing and impairing it for higher-performing individuals. Conclusion: The preliminary evidence is inconsistent with the hypothesis that Adderall has an overall negative effect on creativity. Its effects on divergent creative thought cannot be inferred with confidence from this study because of the ambiguity of null results. Its effects on convergent creative thought appear to be dependent on the baseline creativity of the individual. Those in the higher range of the normal distribution may be unaffected or impaired, whereas those in the lower range of the normal distribution experience enhancement