Extracting Spooky-activation-at-a-distance from Considerations of Entanglement

Following an early claim by Nelson & McEvoy \cite{Nelson:McEvoy:2007} suggesting that word associations can display `spooky action at a distance behaviour', a serious investigation of the potentially quantum nature of such associations is currently underway. This paper presents a simple quantum model of a word association system. It is shown that a quantum model of word entanglement can recover aspects of both the Spreading Activation equation and the Spooky-activation-at-a-distance equation, both of which are used to model the activation level of words in human memory.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; To appear in Proceedings of the Third Quantum Interaction Symposium, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, vol 5494, Springer, 200

Mapping and ordered cloning of the human X chromosome

Progress is reported on gathering X chromosome specific libraries and integrating those with the library produced in this project. Further studies on understanding Fragile X Syndrome and other hereditary diseases related to the X chromosome are described. (DT

Sprinkler and surface irrigation effects on return flow water quality and quantity

A major conservation practice in the Upper Snake-Rock (USR) watershed is the conversion from furrow irrigation to sprinkler irrigation. We compared the effect of irrigation system type on water quality and quantity at the watershed scale. Six small watersheds (150-700 ha) were identified with 5 to 70% of the cropland sprinkler irrigated and the remaining fields surface or furrow irrigated. Other agricultural land uses, cropping practices and soils were similar among watersheds. Water quality and quantity entering and exiting each watershed were measured with automated samplers during the irrigation season. Irrigation inflow to watersheds and outflow from watersheds did not decrease as sprinkler irrigated area increased. This probably results from the flow rate allocation system used on the Twin Falls irrigation tract. Annual sediment loss (r=-0.19, P=0.40) and concentration (r=-0.38, P=0.30) also did not correlate with the relative amount of sprinkler irrigated area. Annual sediment loss (r-0.87, P=0.03) and concentration (r-0.84, P=0.05) correlated with irrigation inflow—the more irrigation water delivered to a watershed the greater the outflow sediment concentration and loss. These preliminary results indicate that irrigation water delivery should be managed in addition to converting to sprinkler irrigation to improve water quality in this irrigated watershed

Water balance for a predominantly surface irrigated district in southern Idaho

Water quantity and quality are being measured in an 82,000 ha irrigation district in southern Idaho to determine the effects of conservation practices, primarily conversion from furrow to sprinkler irrigation, for the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). The percentage of sprinkler irrigated land has steadily increased from about 10% in 1990 to more than 30% in 2005. The objective of this study was to calculate a preliminary water and soluble salt balance for April through November, 2005. The water balance was calculated by subtracting measured outflow and estimated crop water use from measured inflow and precipitation. Precipitation was about 250% of normal in April and May, which delayed irrigation for many crops and probably increased the amount of return flow during these months. Water diverted for irrigation was 82% of the total water input to the irrigation district (inflow plus precipitation). Precipitation contributed 16% of the total input. Thirty-six percent of the diverted water left the irrigation district as surface return flow from April through November. This percentage will increase on an annual basis because return flow continues through the winter months after irrigation diversions have ceased. The irrigation district was a source of suspended sediment and a sink for soluble salts. April through November 2005 monitoring showed a net gain of 1620 kg ha-1 of soluble salts in the irrigation district, which could be a long-term concern if these salts accumulate in the root zone. Net sediment loss was 102 kg ha -1 , which is less than the 461 kg ha-1 measured during a similar study in 1971. These preliminary results indicate that converting to sprinkler irrigation, along with other conservation practices, has reduced sediment loss from this irrigation district. However, solid conclusions cannot be made until at least one year of monitoring is complete to adequately characterize annual trends, particularly the quantity and quality of non-irrigation season return flows

Passive Immunization of Piglets with Hyperimmune Plasma Containing Virus Neutralizing Antibodies to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus

Polyvalent hyperimmune plasma (HP) with high-titers of virus neutralizing (VN) antibody to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) strains was produced in gilts and used to passively immunize 3 week old piglets. The piglets were subsequently challenged with live virus. Results showed delay of viremia, decrease in live virus titers, decrease in gross lung lesions, or delay in transmission to naïve, non-immunized sentinel pigs

Conservation practice effectiveness in the irrigated Upper Snake/Rock Creek watershed

The Upper Snake River/Rock Creek Conservation Effects Assessment Project was initiated in 2005 to determine the effectiveness of conservation practices in an irrigated watershed. Our objectives were to determine water and salt balances and water quality effects of using sprinkler rather than furrow irrigation in the Twin Falls irrigation tract in southern Idaho. Data from the current study were compared with earlier studies conducted from 1968 to 1971. Irrigation water diverted from the Snake River supplied 73% and 83% of the hydrologic input to this 82,000 ha (202,000 ac) watershed in 2005 and 2006, respectively, with approximately 40% flowing back to the Snake River through furrow irrigation runoff, unused irrigation water, and subsurface drainage. Net suspended sediment loss decreased from 460 kg ha–1 (400 lb ac–1) during the 1971 irrigation season to 220 kg ha–1 (190 lb ac–1) in 2005 and 10 kg ha–1 (9 lb ac–1) in 2006 by switching from furrow to sprinkler irrigation, applying polyacylamide, and installing sediment ponds. The relative amount of sprinkler irrigation in a subwatershed did not correlate with the total loss of suspended sediment for July 2005 and 2006 (r = 0.12). The lack of correlation was primarily due to extremely high sediment concentrations in two of the five subwatersheds, possibly due to furrow irrigation management. Two potential concerns identified during this initial analysis were an accumulation of total salts in the watershed and increased nitrate concentrations in four return flow streams compared to earlier studies. Future analyses will determine the effects of specific practices with this watershed

Soil and Nutrient Losses from Small Sprinkler and Furrow Irrigated Watersheds in Southern Idaho

Sediment and associated nutrients flowing to the Snake River with furrow irrigation runoff and unused irrigation water have been a concern in the Twin Falls irrigation tract in southern Idaho. Converting furrow irrigated fields to sprinkler irrigation is one practice that has been promoted, and received financial assistance, to reduce sediment loss. Five small watersheds (330 to 1480 acres) with 10 to 70% sprinkler irrigation were monitored from 2005 to 2008 to determine if converting to sprinkler irrigation reduced sediment and nutrient losses from these watersheds. Eliminating runoff from furrow irrigated fields by converting to sprinkler irrigation will reduce sediment and nutrient losses from fields. However, there were no significant correlations between the amount of sprinkler irrigation and the sediment or nutrient loads from these watersheds. Potential reasons for these results are the flow rate allocation system used by the TFCC, the amount and location of furrow irrigated fields in each watershed, and the management of furrow irrigated fields within each watershed. One significant correlation was decreasing dissolved phosphorus concentrations as relative amount of sprinkler irrigated land increased, presumably because less water flowed across fields in furrows as sprinkler irrigated area increased. A water quality model for irrigated watersheds is needed for more thorough assessment of the variety conditions and management practices within these watersheds

The IUCF Cooler Project

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY 87-1440

Entanglement of Conceptual Entities in Quantum Model Theory (QMod)

We have recently elaborated 'Quantum Model Theory' (QMod) to model situations where the quantum effects of contextuality, interference, superposition, entanglement and emergence, appear without the entities giving rise to these situations having necessarily to be of microscopic nature. We have shown that QMod models without introducing linearity for the set of the states. In this paper we prove that QMod, although not using linearity for the state space, provides a method of identification for entangled states and an intuitive explanation for their occurrence. We illustrate this method for entanglement identification with concrete examples

Quantum Structure in Cognition: Why and How Concepts are Entangled

One of us has recently elaborated a theory for modelling concepts that uses the state context property (SCoP) formalism, i.e. a generalization of the quantum formalism. This formalism incorporates context into the mathematical structure used to represent a concept, and thereby models how context influences the typicality of a single exemplar and the applicability of a single property of a concept, which provides a solution of the 'Pet-Fish problem' and other difficulties occurring in concept theory. Then, a quantum model has been worked out which reproduces the membership weights of several exemplars of concepts and their combinations. We show in this paper that a further relevant effect appears in a natural way whenever two or more concepts combine, namely, 'entanglement'. The presence of entanglement is explicitly revealed by considering a specific example with two concepts, constructing some Bell's inequalities for this example, testing them in a real experiment with test subjects, and finally proving that Bell's inequalities are violated in this case. We show that the intrinsic and unavoidable character of entanglement can be explained in terms of the weights of the exemplars of the combined concept with respect to the weights of the exemplars of the component concepts.Comment: 10 page