Bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis after kidney surgery

A 57-year-old woman underwent an enucleoresection of her right kidney angiomyolipoma. Two weeks later she was admitted to our hospital because of dyspnea at rest with orthopnea. The chest x-ray showed the elevation of both hemidiaphragms and the measurement of the sniff transdiaphragmatic pressure confirmed the diagnosis of bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis. A diaphragm paralysis can be ascribed to several causes, i.e. trauma, compressive events, inflammations, neuropathies, or it can be idiopathic. In this case, it was very likely that the patient suffered from post-surgery neuralgic amyotrophy. To our knowledge, there are only a few reported cases of neuralgic amyotrophy, also known as Parsonage- Turner Syndrome, which affects only the phrenic nerve as a consequence of a surgery in an anatomically distant site

Modeling Concept Combinations in a Quantum-theoretic Framework

We present modeling for conceptual combinations which uses the mathematical formalism of quantum theory. Our model faithfully describes a large amount of experimental data collected by different scholars on concept conjunctions and disjunctions. Furthermore, our approach sheds a new light on long standing drawbacks connected with vagueness, or fuzziness, of concepts, and puts forward a completely novel possible solution to the 'combination problem' in concept theory. Additionally, we introduce an explanation for the occurrence of quantum structures in the mechanisms and dynamics of concepts and, more generally, in cognitive and decision processes, according to which human thought is a well structured superposition of a 'logical thought' and a 'conceptual thought', and the latter usually prevails over the former, at variance with some widespread beliefsComment: 5 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1311.605

Extended Representations of Observables and States for a Noncontextual Reinterpretation of QM

A crucial and problematical feature of quantum mechanics (QM) is nonobjectivity of properties. The ESR model restores objectivity reinterpreting quantum probabilities as conditional on detection and embodying the mathematical formalism of QM into a broader noncontextual (hence local) framework. We propose here an improved presentation of the ESR model containing a more complete mathematical representation of the basic entities of the model. We also extend the model to mixtures showing that the mathematical representations of proper mixtures does not coincide with the mathematical representation of mixtures provided by QM, while the representation of improper mixtures does. This feature of the ESR model entails that some interpretative problems raising in QM when dealing with mixtures are avoided. From an empirical point of view the predictions of the ESR model depend on some parameters which may be such that they are very close to the predictions of QM in most cases. But the nonstandard representation of proper mixtures allows us to propose the scheme of an experiment that could check whether the predictions of QM or the predictions of the ESR model are correct.Comment: 17 pages, standard latex. Extensively revised versio

Probability Measures and projections on Quantum Logics

The present paper is devoted to modelling of a probability measure of logical connectives on a quantum logic (QL), via a $G$-map, which is a special map on it. We follow the work in which the probability of logical conjunction, disjunction and symmetric difference and their negations for non-compatible propositions are studied. We study such a $G$-map on quantum logics, which is a probability measure of a projection and show, that unlike classical (Boolean) logic, probability measure of projections on a quantum logic are not necessarilly pure projections. We compare properties of a $G$-map on QLs with properties of a probability measure related to logical connectives on a Boolean algebra

What is Quantum? Unifying Its Micro-Physical and Structural Appearance

We can recognize two modes in which 'quantum appears' in macro domains: (i) a 'micro-physical appearance', where quantum laws are assumed to be universal and they are transferred from the micro to the macro level if suitable 'quantum coherence' conditions (e.g., very low temperatures) are realized, (ii) a 'structural appearance', where no hypothesis is made on the validity of quantum laws at a micro level, while genuine quantum aspects are detected at a structural-modeling level. In this paper, we inquire into the connections between the two appearances. We put forward the explanatory hypothesis that, 'the appearance of quantum in both cases' is due to 'the existence of a specific form of organisation, which has the capacity to cope with random perturbations that would destroy this organisation when not coped with'. We analyse how 'organisation of matter', 'organisation of life', and 'organisation of culture', play this role each in their specific domain of application, point out the importance of evolution in this respect, and put forward how our analysis sheds new light on 'what quantum is'.Comment: 10 page

Imprisonment and internment: Comparing penal facilities North and South

Recent references to the ‘warehouse prison’ in the United States and the prisión-depósito in Latin America seem to indicate that penal confinement in the western hemisphere has converged on a similar model. However, this article suggests otherwise. It contrasts penal facilities in North America and Latin America in terms of six interrelated aspects: regimentation; surveillance; isolation; supervision; accountability; and formalization. Quantitatively, control in North American penal facilities is assiduous (unceasing, persistent and intrusive), while in Latin America it is perfunctory (sporadic, indifferent and cursory). Qualitatively, North American penal facilities produce imprisonment (which enacts penal intervention through confinement), while in Latin America they produce internment (which enacts penal intervention through release). Closely entwined with this qualitative difference are distinct practices of judicial involvement in sentencing and penal supervision. Those practices, and the cultural and political factors that underpin them, represent an interesting starting point for the explanation of the contrasting nature of imprisonment and internment

Proper Versus Improper Mixtures: Towards a Quaternionic Quantum Mechanics

The density operators obtained by taking partial traces do not represent proper mixtures of the subsystems of a compound physical system, but improper mixtures, since the coefficients in the convex sums expressing them never bear the ignorance interpretation. As a consequence, assigning states to these subsystems is problematical in standard quantum mechanics (subentity problem). Basing on the proposal provided in the SR interpretation of quantum mechanics, where improper mixtures are considered as true nonpure states conceptually distinct from proper mixtures, we show here that proper and improper mixtures can be represented by different density operators in the quaternionic formulation of quantum mechanics, hence they can be distinguished also from a mathematical viewpoint. A simple example related to the quantum theory of measurement is provided.Comment: 10 pages, standard latex, accepted for publication in Theoretical and Mathematical Physic