Forensic practitioners’ views on stimulating moral development and moral growth in forensic psychiatric care

In the context of debates on (forensic) psychiatry issues pertaining to moral dimensions of (forensic) psychiatric health care are frequently discussed. These debates invite reflection on the question whether forensic practitioners have a role in stimulating patients’ moral development and moral growth in the context of forensic psychiatric and psychological treatment and care. We conducted a qualitative study to examine to what extent forensic practitioners consider moral development and moral growth to be a part of their current professional practices and to what extent they think that stimulating moral development is a legitimate objective in the context of forensic psychiatric treatment. In addition, we asked how forensic practitioners balance pubic safety and risk management concerns with the interests and wellbeing of the individual patient. We conclude that: (i) elements of moral development and moral growth in forensic psychiatric care practices are to a certain extent inevitable and not necessarily questionable or undesirable; (ii) yet, as in similar debates these elements need to be made explicit in order to discuss the accompanying ethical challenges and boundaries. An open academic, professional and public debate on aspects of stimulating moral betterment within current practices is therefore desirable

Finite-precision measurement does not nullify the Kochen-Specker theorem

It is proven that any hidden variable theory of the type proposed by Meyer [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 83}, 3751 (1999)], Kent [{\em ibid.} {\bf 83}, 3755 (1999)], and Clifton and Kent [Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A {\bf 456}, 2101 (2000)] leads to experimentally testable predictions that are in contradiction with those of quantum mechanics. Therefore, it is argued that the existence of dense Kochen-Specker-colorable sets must not be interpreted as a nullification of the physical impact of the Kochen-Specker theorem once the finite precision of real measurements is taken into account.Comment: REVTeX4, 5 page

The diagonalization method in quantum recursion theory

As quantum parallelism allows the effective co-representation of classical mutually exclusive states, the diagonalization method of classical recursion theory has to be modified. Quantum diagonalization involves unitary operators whose eigenvalues are different from one.Comment: 15 pages, completely rewritte

Associating with art: a network model of aesthetic effects

In recent years, understanding psychological constructs as network processes has gained considerable traction in the social sciences. In this paper, we propose the aesthetic effects network (AEN) as a novel way to conceptualize aesthetic experience. The AEN represents an associative process where having one association leads to the next association, generating an overall aesthetic experience. In art theory, associations of this kind are referred to as aesthetic effects. The AEN provides an explicit account of a specific cognitive process involved in aesthetic experience. We first outline the AEN and discuss empirical results (Study 1, N=255) to explore what can be gained from this approach. Second, in Study 2 (N=133, pre-registered) we follow calls in the literature to substantiate network theories by using an experimental manipulation, and found evidence in favor of the AEN over other alternatives. The AEN provides a basis for future studies that can apply a network perspective to different aesthetic experiences and processes. This perspective takes a process-based approach to aesthetic experience, where aesthetic experience is represented as an active interaction between viewer and artwork. If we want to understand how people experience art, it is central to know why people have different experiences with the same artworks, and, also, why people have similar experiences when looking at different artworks. Our proposed network perspective offers a new way to approach and potentially answer these questions.Stress and Psychopatholog

Contextuality-by-Default: A Brief Overview of Ideas, Concepts, and Terminology

This paper is a brief overview of the concepts involved in measuring the degree of contextuality and detecting contextuality in systems of binary measurements of a finite number of objects. We discuss and clarify the main concepts and terminology of the theory called "contextuality-by-default," and then discuss a possible generalization of the theory from binary to arbitrary measurements.Comment: Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9535 (with the corrected list of authors) (2016

State-Level Immunization Information Systems: Potential for Childhood Immunization Data Linkages.

Objectives Sources of immunization data include state registries or immunization information systems (IIS), medical records, and surveys. Little is known about the quality of these data sources or the feasibility of using IIS data for research. We assessed the feasibility of collecting immunization information for a national children\u27s health study by accessing existing IIS data and comparing the completeness of these data against medical record abstractions (MRA) and parent report. Staff time needed to obtain IIS and MRA data was assessed. Methods We administered a questionnaire to state-level IIS representatives to ascertain availability and completeness of their data for research and gather information about data formats. We evaluated quality of data from IIS, medical records, and reports from parents of 119 National Children\u27s Study participants at three locations. Results IIS data were comparable to MRA data and both were more complete than parental report. Agreement between IIS and MRA data was greater than between parental report and MRA, suggesting IIS and MRA are better sources than parental report. Obtaining IIS data took less staff time than chart review, making IIS data linkage for research a preferred choice. Conclusions IIS survey results indicate data can be obtained by researchers using data linkages. IIS are an accessible and feasible child immunization information source and these registries reduce reliance on parental report or medical record abstraction. Researchers seeking to link IIS data with large multi-site studies should consider acquiring IIS data, but may need strategies to overcome barriers to data completeness and linkage

NMR quality control of fragment libraries for screening

Fragment-based screening has evolved as a remarkable approach within the drug discovery process both in the industry and academia. Fragment screening has become a more structure-based approach to inhibitor development, but also towards development of pathway-specific clinical probes. However, it is often witnessed that the availability, immediate and long-term, of a high quality fragment-screening library is still beyond the reach of most academic laboratories. Within iNEXT (Infrastructure for NMR, EM and X-rays for Translational research), a EU-funded Horizon 2020 program, a collection of 782 fragments were assembled utilizing the concept of "poised fragments" with the aim to facilitate downstream synthesis of ligands with high affinity by fragment ligation. Herein, we describe the analytical procedure to assess the quality of this purchased and assembled fragment library by NMR spectroscopy. This quality assessment requires buffer solubility screening, comparison with LC/MS quality control and is supported by state-of-the-art software for high throughput data acquisition and on-the-fly data analysis. Results from the analysis of the library are presented as a prototype of fragment progression through the quality control process

Finite precision measurement nullifies the Kochen-Specker theorem

Only finite precision measurements are experimentally reasonable, and they cannot distinguish a dense subset from its closure. We show that the rational vectors, which are dense in S^2, can be colored so that the contradiction with hidden variable theories provided by Kochen-Specker constructions does not obtain. Thus, in contrast to violation of the Bell inequalities, no quantum-over-classical advantage for information processing can be derived from the Kochen-Specker theorem alone.Comment: 7 pages, plain TeX; minor corrections, interpretation clarified, references update

Causality - Complexity - Consistency: Can Space-Time Be Based on Logic and Computation?

The difficulty of explaining non-local correlations in a fixed causal structure sheds new light on the old debate on whether space and time are to be seen as fundamental. Refraining from assuming space-time as given a priori has a number of consequences. First, the usual definitions of randomness depend on a causal structure and turn meaningless. So motivated, we propose an intrinsic, physically motivated measure for the randomness of a string of bits: its length minus its normalized work value, a quantity we closely relate to its Kolmogorov complexity (the length of the shortest program making a universal Turing machine output this string). We test this alternative concept of randomness for the example of non-local correlations, and we end up with a reasoning that leads to similar conclusions as in, but is conceptually more direct than, the probabilistic view since only the outcomes of measurements that can actually all be carried out together are put into relation to each other. In the same context-free spirit, we connect the logical reversibility of an evolution to the second law of thermodynamics and the arrow of time. Refining this, we end up with a speculation on the emergence of a space-time structure on bit strings in terms of data-compressibility relations. Finally, we show that logical consistency, by which we replace the abandoned causality, it strictly weaker a constraint than the latter in the multi-party case.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, small correction

The combinatorics of the Baer-Specker group

Denote the integers by Z and the positive integers by N. The groups Z^k (k a natural number) are discrete, and the classification up to isomorphism of their (topological) subgroups is trivial. But already for the countably infinite power Z^N of Z, the situation is different. Here the product topology is nontrivial, and the subgroups of Z^N make a rich source of examples of non-isomorphic topological groups. Z^N is the Baer-Specker group. We study subgroups of the Baer-Specker group which possess group theoretic properties analogous to properties introduced by Menger (1924), Hurewicz (1925), Rothberger (1938), and Scheepers (1996). The studied properties were introduced independently by Ko\v{c}inac and Okunev. We obtain purely combinatorial characterizations of these properties, and combine them with other techniques to solve several questions of Babinkostova, Ko\v{c}inac, and Scheepers.Comment: To appear in IJ