Nonlocal consciousness in the universe: panpsychism, psi & mind over matter in a hyperdimensional physics

Five types of processes display a ‘beyond spacetime’ property—or nonlocality as evidenced in the quantum entanglement—, including psi, proven to operate beyond-brain and beyond-spacetime. Together, these five anomalies are not only at odds with Relativity but also with the indeterminacy of Quantum Mechanics. However, in the same way as the four forces can only be unified via a hyperdimension, a hyperdimension that includes a cosmic consciousness (together with hyperspace and hypertime) may give a cogent foundation for all five nonlocal anomalies.  The Infinite-Spiral-Staircase Theory (ISST) posits such triune hyperdimension (HD) as all-encompassing in the universe, pre-existing to and pervading the spacetime region because it dwells at a sub-Planckian scale—both at the origin and at any spacetime coordinates in all systems. ISST accommodates the double-nature of consciousness, mostly nonlocal and operating through the hyperdimension, and partly embodied. The HD of a system is its dynamical meaningful organizational layer, its semantic field (syg-field), more or less evolved, from a proto-consciousness to a mind. The framework of ISST is panpsychist—with the hyperdimensional sygons (syg energy) pervading any atom, cell, biosystem and mind—, and is thus based on a deep, multilevel and distributed, mind-matter coupling. The sygons, pure semantic (syg) energy, create instant nonlocal connections between resonant semantic fields, thus explaining telepathy and psi at large. All semantic interconnections imply an inter-influence between syg-fields, the control variable of influence being the intensity of syg energy. Once the syg-field of a system has been reorganized, the change takes place within the matter- or bio-system

Commentary on 'Somewhere out there in a place no one knows: Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police and the literature of forgetting' by John Henning

The Memory Police is a disconcerting novel set on a mysterious island. Inhabitants of this island suffer objects being 'disappeared', and we follow our narrator's journey as they try to navigate these disappearances. Henning in their compelling recent essay suggests that the novel can be more fully appreciated by engaging with a literature of forgetting and draws parallels between the events in the book and the course of the neurodegenerative process of Alzheimer's disease. In this commentary, I suggest that the progressive deterioration of conceptual knowledge described in the novel most closely resembles that seen in the rare neurodegenerative disease, semantic dementia

Single genome sequencing of near full-length HIV-1 RNA using a limiting dilution approach

Sequencing very long stretches of the HIV-1 genome can advance studies on virus evolution and in vivo recombination but remains technically challenging. We developed an efficient procedure to sequence near full-length HIV-1 RNA using a two-amplicon approach. The whole genome was successfully amplified for 107 (88%) of 121 plasma samples including samples from patients infected with HIV-1 subtype A1, B, C, D, F1, G, H, CRF01_AE and CRF02_AG. For the 17 samples with a viral load below 1000 c/ml and the 104 samples with a viral load above 1000 c/ml, the amplification efficiency was respectively 53% and 94%. The sensitivity of the method was further evaluated using limiting dilution of RNA extracted from a plasma pool containing an equimolar mixture of three HIV-1 subtypes (B, C and CRF02_AG) and diluted before and after cDNA generation. Both RNA and cDNA dilution showed comparable sensitivity and equal accuracy in reflecting the subtype distribution of the plasma pool. One single event of in vitro recombination was detected amongst the 41 sequences obtained after cDNA dilution but no indications for in vitro recombination were found after RNA dilution. In conclusion, a two-amplicon strategy and limiting dilution of viral RNA followed by reverse transcription, nested PCR and Sanger sequencing, allows near full genome sequencing of individual HIV-1 RNA molecules. This method will be a valuable tool in the study of virus evolution and recombination

Posterior cortical atrophy: an overview for optometrists

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome that is characterised by a progressive decline in visuospatial and visuospatial skills1,2. Precise estimates of the prevalence and incidence of PCA are difficult to determine; this largely owes to an under-recognition of the PCA syndrome, misdiagnosis, and certain inconsistencies in the application of clinical and research criteria for PCA. Estimates to date have been based on specialist dementia and memory clinics, which include reports of between 8-13% of patients as having predominant visual disturbances in addition to nonvisual symptoms characteristically associated with PCA, such as difficulties with writing, calculation, spelling, handwriting and praxis skills3,4.  All of this leads easily to misinterpretation of routine ophthalmological investigations using automated static perimetry, crowded Snellen letter or Ishihara colour charts

The infrared imaging spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: electronics-cable architecture

The InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is a first-light instrument for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). It combines a diffraction limited imager and an integral field spectrograph. This paper focuses on the electrical system of IRIS. With an instrument of the size and complexity of IRIS we face several electrical challenges. Many of the major controllers must be located directly on the cryostat to reduce cable lengths, and others require multiple bulkheads and must pass through a large cable wrap. Cooling and vibration due to the rotation of the instrument are also major challenges. We will present our selection of cables and connectors for both room temperature and cryogenic environments, packaging in the various cabinets and enclosures, and techniques for complex bulkheads including for large detectors at the cryostat wall

Are hygiene standards useful in assessing infection risk?

We monitored the surface level cleanliness of a five-bedded surgical intensive care unit (SICU) over a ten-week period in order to evaluate proposed hygiene standards.Ten environmental sites within SICU were sampled twice weekly along with collection of clinical and patient activity data. The standards designate aerobic colony counts (ACCs) >2.5cfu/cm2 from hand-touch sites and the presence of Staphylococcus aureus as hygiene failures. Nearly a quarter of 200 samples failed the standards, mostly from hand-touch sites on curtains, beds and medical equipment. The total number of fails each week was associated with bed occupancy (p=0.04), trending towards association with SICU-acquired infections (p=0.11). Environmental S.aureus was associated with the proportion of beds occupied (p = 0.02). Indistinguishable genotypes were found between patient and environmental staphylococci, with timescales supporting staphylococcal transmission in both directions. Hygiene standards based on microbial growth levels and the presence of S.aureus reflect patient activity and provide a means to risk manage infection. They also exposed a staphylococcal reservoir that could represent a more tangible risk to patients. Standards for surface level cleanliness deserve further evaluation

Indentation modulus and Young\u27s modulus of Cu‐Cr‐Zr alloy at macro‐scale level

In this communication the first experimental results of indentation modulus and Young’s modulus (tensile modulus) of seven samples of Cu-Cr-Zr alloy (chemical composition: 1%Cr, 0.06%Zr, rest Cu), in the macro-scale range at room temperature, are presented and compared. Six Cu-Cr-Zr samples have been aged from different heat treatments for 2 hours in a vacuum furnace at 400C, 480C, 550C, 600C, 650C, 700C, and a single sample is kept as received. In the alloys here investigated, Cr is coherent in the Cu matrix for the as-received condition and the precipitates grow in size up to ~32 nm for the 700C condition. The experimental procedures for the measurement of indentation modulus, by using the primary hardness standard machine at INRIM, and the Young’s modulus, by means of engineering tensile tests at CIRA, are described. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Bayesian inference of a new Mallows model for characterising symptom sequences applied in primary progressive aphasia

Machine learning models offer the potential to understand diverse datasets in a data-driven way, powering insights into individual disease experiences and ensuring equitable healthcare. In this study, we explore Bayesian inference for characterising symptom sequences, and the associated modelling challenges. We adapted the Mallows model to account for partial rankings and right-censored data, employing custom MCMC fitting. Our evaluation, encompassing synthetic data and a primary progressive aphasia dataset, highlights the model's efficacy in revealing mean orderings and estimating ranking variance. This holds the potential to enhance clinical comprehension of symptom occurrence. However, our work encounters limitations concerning model scalability and small dataset sizes.Comment: Extended Abstract presented at Machine Learning for Health (ML4H) symposium 2023, December 10th, 2023, New Orleans, United States, 8 page