Commentary: Intentional Observer Effects on Quantum Randomness: A Bayesian Analysis Reveals Evidence Against Micro-Psychokinesis

The paper titled `Intentional Observer Effects on Quantum Randomness: A Bayesian Analysis Reveals Evidence Against Micro-Psychokinesis', published in Frontiers of Psychology in March 2018, reports on a mind-matter experiment with the main result of strong evidence against Micro-Psychokinesis. Despite this conclusion, the authors interpret the observed pattern in their data as possible evidence for Micro-Psychokinesis, albeit of a different kind. Suggesting a connection to some existing models, the authors put forward the hypothesis that a higher frequency of slow data variations can be observed in their experiment data than in a set of control data. This commentary analyses this claim and concludes that the variation in the data motivating this hypothesis would show up just by chance with a probability of p=0.328 under a null hypothesis. Therefore, there is no evidence for the hypothesis of faster data variations, and thus for this kind of suggested Micro-Psychokinesis in this experiment

Grain legume nitrogen fixation and balance model for use in practical (organic) agriculture

In extensive agricultural systems, i.g. organic farming, nutrient balance calculations are of high importance. Common calculation models for nitrogen fixation of grain legumes are either of far too much complexity especially for use in agricultural practice or of too low accuracy. Measurements in the literature of grain yield, harvest index, N2 fixation, N content, N surplus, Nmin content of the soil, etc., were compiled. Correlation analyses were then carried out with Vicia faba L. and Pisum sativum L. data sets from conventional and organic field trials per-formed in Central European. Grain yield or N output, Nmin content before sowing, and the N harvest index proved to be the most effective driving variables for developing a calculation model for plant nitrogen fixation and the surplus amount. All the variables mentioned are listed in farmers’ plot card indices, with the exception of the N harvest index, an essential variable which is not detectible by the farmer. Therefore, the N harvest index was indirectly determined through the effects of grain yield and Nmin content using non-linear multiple re-gression analyses. Comparing calculations between common and the improved forms of mod-els showed significantly better conformity between measured and calculated datasets of grain legumes

An improved local well-posedness result for the one-dimensional Zakharov system

The 1D Cauchy problem for the Zakharov system is shown to be locally well-posed for low regularity Schr\"odinger data u_0 \in \hat{H^{k,p}} and wave data (n_0,n_1) \in \hat{H^{l,p}} \times \hat{H^{l-1,p}} under certain assumptions on the parameters k,l and 1<p\le 2, where \|u_0\|_{\hat{H^{k,p}}} := \| ^k \hat{u_0}\|_{L^{p'}}, generalizing the results for p=2 by Ginibre, Tsutsumi, and Velo. Especially we are able to improve the results from the scaling point of view, and also allow suitable k<0, l<-1/2, i.e. data u_0 \not\in L^2 and (n_0,n_1)\not\in H^{-1/2}\times H^{-3/2}, which was excluded in the case p=2.Comment: 17 pages. Final version to appear in Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Application