Quantum Mind in TGD Universe

The basic diffculties and challenges of Quantum Mind program are analyzed.The conclusion is that the recent form of quantum theory is not enough to overcome the challenges posed by the philosophical problems of quantum physics and quantum mind theories, and the puzzles of quantum biology and quantum neuroscience. Certain anomalies of recent day biology giving hints about how quantum theory should be generalized serve as an introduction to the summary of the aspects of quantum TGD especially relevant to the notion of Quantum Mind.These include the notions of many-sheeted space-time and field (magnetic) body, zero energy ontology, the identification of dark matter as a hierarchy of phases with large value of Planck constant, and p-adic physics proposed to define physical correlates for cognition and intentionality. Especially relevant is the number theoretic generalization of Shannon entropy: this entropy is well defined for rational or even algebraic entanglement probabilities and its minimum as a function of the prime defining p-adic norm appearing in the definition of the entropy is negative. Therefore the notion of negentropic entanglement makes sense in the intersection of real and p-adic worlds and is negative: this motivates the proposal that living matter resides in this intersection. TGD inspired theory of consciousness is introduced as a generalization of quantum measurement theory. The notions of quantum jump and self defining the generalization of the notion of observer are introduced and it is argued that the notion of self reduces to that for quantum jump. Negentropy Maximization Principle reproduces standard quantum measurement theory for ordinary entanglement but respects negentropic entanglement so that the outcome of state function reduction is not random for negentropic entanglement. The new view about the relationship of experienced time and geometric time combined with zero energy ontology is claimed to solve the basic philosophical diffculties ofquantum measurement theory and consciousness theory. The identication of the quantum correlates of sensory qualia and Boolean cognition, emotions, cognition and intentionality and self-referentiality of consciousness is discussed

Регіональні й глобальні наслідки незалежності Косово

У статті розглянуто регіональні й міжнародні аспекти проголошення незалежності Косово. Проаналізовано конфліктні аспекти косовської проблеми у регіональному й глобальному контекстах.В статье рассматриваются региональные и международные аспекты провозглашения независимости Косово. Проанализировано конфликтные аспекты косовской проблемы в региональном и глобальном контекстах.The article presents the regional and international aspects of Kosovo Independents. Special attention is to the conflict of Kosovo in the regional and global context

Surface Water Intrusion, Land Use Impacts, and Bacterial Community Composition in Shallow Groundwater Wells Supplying Potable Water in Sparsely Populated Areas of a Boreal Region

Rural communities often rely on groundwater for potable water supply. In this study, untreated groundwater samples from 28 shallow groundwater wells in Finland ( IMPORTANCE Standard physicochemical water quality analyses and microbial indicator analyses leave much of the (largely uncultured) complexity of groundwater microbial communities unexplored. This study combined these standard methods with additional analyses of stable water isotopes, bacterial community data, and environmental data about the surrounding areas to investigate the associations between physicochemical and microbial properties of 28 shallow groundwater wells in Finland. We detected impaired groundwater quality in some wells, identified potential land use impacts, and revealed indications of surface water intrusion which were negatively correlated with bacterial alpha diversity. The potential influence of surface water intrusion on groundwater wells and their bacterial communities is of particular interest and warrants further investigation because surface water intrusion has previously been linked to groundwater contamination, which is the primary cause of waterborne outbreaks in the Nordic region and one of the major causes in the United States and Canada.Peer reviewe

Psychogenic amnesia: syndromes, outcome, and patterns of retrograde amnesia

There are very few case series of patients with acute psychogenic memory loss (also known as dissociative/functional amnesia), and still fewer studies of outcome, or comparisons with neurological memory-disordered patients. Consequently, the literature on psychogenic amnesia is somewhat fragmented and offers little of prognostic value for individual patients. In the present study, we reviewed the case records and neuropsychological findings in 53 psychogenic amnesia cases (3M:1F), in comparison with 21 consecutively recruited neurological memory-disordered patients and 14 healthy controls. In particular, we examined the pattern of retrograde amnesia on an assessment of autobiographical memory (the Autobiographical Memory Interview). We found that our patients with psychogenic memory loss fell into four distinct groups, which we categorised as: (i) fugue state, (ii) fugue-to-focal retrograde amnesia, (iii) psychogenic focal retrograde amnesia following a minor neurological episode, and (iv) patients with gaps in their memories. While neurological cases were characterised by relevant neurological symptoms, a history of a past head injury was actually more common in our psychogenic cases (p=0.012), perhaps reflecting a ‘learning episode’ predisposing to later psychological amnesia. As anticipated, loss of the sense of personal identity was confined to the psychogenic group. However, clinical depression, family/relationship problems, financial/employment problems, and failure to recognise the family were also statistically more common in that group. The pattern of autobiographical memory loss differed between the psychogenic groups: fugue cases showed a severe and uniform loss of memories for both facts and events across all time-periods, whereas the two focal retrograde amnesia groups showed a ‘reversed’ temporal gradient with relative sparing of recent memories. After 3-6 months, the fugue patients had improved to normal scores for facts and near-normal scores for events. By contrast, the two focal retrograde amnesia groups showed a lesser improvement and continued to show a reversed temporal gradient. In conclusion, the outcome in psychogenic amnesia, particularly those characterised by fugue, is better than generally supposed. Findings are interpreted in terms of Markowitsch’s and Kopelman’s models of psychogenic amnesia, and with respect to Anderson’s neuroimaging findings in memory inhibition

Historical (1750 - 2014) anthropogenic emissions of reactive gases and aerosols from the Community Emission Data System (CEDS)

We present a new data set of annual historical (1750–2014) anthropogenic chemically reactive gases (CO, CH4, NH3, NOX, SO2, NMVOC), carbonaceous aerosols (BC and OC), and CO2 developed with the Community Emissions Database System (CEDS). We improve upon existing inventories with a more consistent and reproducible methodology applied to all emissions species, updated emission factors, and recent estimates through 2014. The data system relies on existing energy consumption data sets and regional and country-specific inventories to produce trends over recent decades. All emissions species are consistently estimated using the same activity data over all time periods. Emissions are provided on an annual basis at the level of country and sector and gridded with monthly seasonality. These estimates are comparable to, but generally slightly higher than, existing global inventories. Emissions over the most recent years are more uncertain, particularly in low- and middle-income regions where country-specific emission inventories are less available. Future work will involve refining and updating these emission estimates, estimating emissions uncertainty, and publication of the system as open source software

The influence of semantic and phonological factors on syntactic decisions: An event-related brain potential study

During language production and comprehension, information about a word's syntactic properties is sometimes needed. While the decision about the grammatical gender of a word requires access to syntactic knowledge, it has also been hypothesized that semantic (i.e., biological gender) or phonological information (i.e., sound regularities) may influence this decision. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while native speakers of German processed written words that were or were not semantically and/or phonologically marked for gender. Behavioral and ERP results showed that participants were faster in making a gender decision when words were semantically and/or phonologically gender marked than when this was not the case, although the phonological effects were less clear. In conclusion, our data provide evidence that even though participants performed a grammatical gender decision, this task can be influenced by semantic and phonological factors

International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force recommendations for systematic sampling and processing of brains from epileptic dogs and cats

Traditionally, histological investigations of the epileptic brain are required to identify epileptogenic brain lesions, to evaluate the impact of seizure activity, to search for mechanisms of drug-resistance and to look for comorbidities. For many instances, however, neuropathological studies fail to add substantial data on patients with complete clinical work-up. This may be due to sparse training in epilepsy pathology and or due to lack of neuropathological guidelines for companion animals. The protocols introduced herein shall facilitate systematic sampling and processing of epileptic brains and therefore increase the efficacy, reliability and reproducibility of morphological studies in animals suffering from seizures. Brain dissection protocols of two neuropathological centres with research focus in epilepsy have been optimised with regards to their diagnostic yield and accuracy, their practicability and their feasibility concerning clinical research requirements. The recommended guidelines allow for easy, standardised and ubiquitous collection of brain regions, relevant for seizure generation. Tissues harvested the prescribed way will increase the diagnostic efficacy and provide reliable material for scientific investigations

Tinkering with the Unbearable Lightness of Being: Meditation, Mind-Body Medicine and Placebo in the Quantum Biology Age

There are empirical indications that mind-body therapies have a nonlocal quantum component, in addition to the psychoneuroimmunological pathways that have been the focus of the predominant experimental paradigm.  The discussion below addresses the evidence and proposed theoretical mechanisms supporting this conclusion, and makes the case that there should be a convergence of research agendas between mind-body interventions (including placebo),  photomedicine and quantum biology.  Specifically, the role of endogenously generated biophotons in the regulation of genetic expression and the apparent ability of mental intent to direct biophoton emissions to specifically targeted tissues needs to be further evaluated from the perspective of photobiomodulation mechanisms, with a special focus on the spectroscopy and dosimetry of these emissions. Finally, the possible role of long-term meditation in enhancing quantum biological effects has to be further investigated at the level of cellular and macromolecular remodeling, both in the brain and the body