On the explanation for quantum statistics

The concept of classical indistinguishability is analyzed and defended against a number of well-known criticisms, with particular attention to the Gibbs' paradox. Granted that it is as much at home in classical as in quantum statistical mechanics, the question arises as to why indistinguishability, in quantum mechanics but not in classical mechanics, forces a change in statistics. The answer, illustrated with simple examples, is that the equilibrium measure on classical phase space is continuous, whilst on Hilbert space it is discrete. The relevance of names, or equivalently, properties stable in time that can be used as names, is also discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physic

Breathe Easy EDA: a MATLAB toolbox for psychophysiology data management, cleaning, and analysis

Electrodermal activity (EDA) recordings are widely used in experimental psychology to measure skin conductance responses (SCRs) that reflect sympathetic nervous system arousal. However, irregular respiration patterns and deep breaths can cause EDA fluctuations that are difficult to distinguish from genuine arousal-related SCRs, presenting a methodological challenge that increases the likelihood of false positives in SCR analyses. Thus, it is crucial to identify respiration-related artifacts in EDA data. Here we developed a novel and freely distributed MATLAB toolbox, Breathe Easy EDA (BEEDA). BEEDA is a flexible toolbox that facilitates EDA visual inspection, allowing users to identify and eliminate respiration artifacts. BEEDA further includes functionality for EDA data analyses (measuring tonic and phasic EDA components) and reliability analyses for artifact identification. The toolbox is suitable for any experiment recording both EDA and respiration data, and flexibly adjusts to experiment-specific parameters (e.g., trial structure and analysis parameters)

Predictive social perception: Towards a unifying framework from action observation to person knowledge

Action observation is central to human social interaction. It allows people to derive what mental states drive others' behaviour and coordinate (and compete) effectively with them. Although previous accounts have conceptualised this ability in terms of bottom-up (motoric or conceptual) matching processes, more recent evidence suggests that such mechanisms cannot account for the complexity and uncertainty of the sensory input, even in cases where computations should be much simpler (i.e., low-level vision). It has therefore been argued that perception in general, and social perception in particular, is better described as a process of top–down hypothesis testing. In such models, any assumption about others—their goals, attitudes, and beliefs—is translated into predictions of expected sensory input and compared with incoming stimulation. This allows perception and action to be based on these expectations or—in case of a mismatch—for one's prior assumptions to be revised until they are better aligned with the individual's behaviour. This article will give a (selective) review of recent research from experimental psychology and (social) neuroscience that supports such views, discuss the relevant underlying models, and current gaps in research. In particular, it will argue that much headway can be made when current research on predictive social perception is integrated with classic findings from social psychology, which have already shown striking effects of prior knowledge on the processing of other people's behaviour

Dynamics of intraoceanic subduction initiation: 1. Oceanic detachment fault inversion and the formation of supra-subduction zone ophiolites

Subduction initiation is a critical link in the plate tectonic cycle. Intraoceanic subduction zones can form along transform faults and fracture zones, but how subduction nucleates parallel to mid-ocean ridges, as in e.g., the Neotethys Ocean during the Jurassic, remains a matter of debate. In recent years, extensional detachment faults have been widely documented adjacent to slow-spreading and ultraslow-spreading ridges where they cut across the oceanic lithosphere. These structures are extremely weak due to widespread occurrence of serpentine and talc resulting from hydrothermal alteration, and can therefore effectively localize deformation. Here, we show geochemical, tectonic, and paleomagnetic evidence from the Jurassic ophiolites of Albania and Greece for a subduction zone formed in the western Neotethys parallel to a spreading ridge along an oceanic detachment fault. With 2-D numerical modeling exploring the evolution of a detachment-ridge system experiencing compression, we show that serpentinized detachments are always weaker than spreading ridges. We conclude that, owing to their extreme weakness, oceanic detachments can effectively localize deformation under perpendicular far-field forcing, providing ideal conditions to nucleate new subduction zones parallel and close to (or at) spreading ridges. Direct implication of this, is that resumed magmatic activity in the forearc during subduction initiation can yield widespread accretion of suprasubduction zone ophiolites at or close to the paleoridge. Our new model casts the enigmatic origin of regionally extensive ophiolite belts in a novel geodynamic context, and calls for future research on three-dimensional modeling of subduction initiation and how upper plate extension is associated with that

The Things You Do:Internal Models of Others' Expected Behaviour Guide Action Observation

Predictions allow humans to manage uncertainties within social interactions. Here, we investigate how explicit and implicit person models-how different people behave in different situations-shape these predictions. In a novel action identification task, participants judged whether actors interacted with or withdrew from objects. In two experiments, we manipulated, unbeknownst to participants, the two actors action likelihoods across situations, such that one actor typically interacted with one object and withdrew from the other, while the other actor showed the opposite behaviour. In Experiment 2, participants additionally received explicit information about the two individuals that either matched or mismatched their actual behaviours. The data revealed direct but dissociable effects of both kinds of person information on action identification. Implicit action likelihoods affected response times, speeding up the identification of typical relative to atypical actions, irrespective of the explicit knowledge about the individual's behaviour. Explicit person knowledge, in contrast, affected error rates, causing participants to respond according to expectations instead of observed behaviour, even when they were aware that the explicit information might not be valid. Together, the data show that internal models of others' behaviour are routinely re-activated during action observation. They provide first evidence of a person-specific social anticipation system, which predicts forthcoming actions from both explicit information and an individuals' prior behaviour in a situation. These data link action observation to recent models of predictive coding in the non-social domain where similar dissociations between implicit effects on stimulus identification and explicit behavioural wagers have been reported

Strontium isotopes in Chilean rivers : the flux of unradiogenic continental Sr to seawater

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Chemical Geology 268 (2009): 337-343, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2009.09.013.Analyses of Chilean river waters indicate that the average yield of unradiogenic Sr (~ 517 mol Sr km− 2 yr− 1, 87Sr/86Sr ~ 0.7057) from western South America (1,220,853 km2) into the southeastern Pacific Ocean is ~ 2–4 times higher than that from Iceland (~ 110 mol Sr km − 2 yr− 1, 87Sr/86Sr ~ 0.7025) and the Deccan traps, but lower than fluxes of unradiogenic Sr from ocean islands in the Lesser Antilles and Réunion. The Sr flux from western South America accounts for about 1.8% of the annual dissolved Sr delivered to the ocean via rivers. If Chilean rivers analyzed in this study accurately characterize runoff from western South America, active convergent continental margins release about as much unradiogenic Sr to seawater as a 0–1 Myr old mid-ocean ridge segment of equivalent length. Modulations of the flux of unradiogenic Sr from active margins over geologic time scales have to be considered as an additional driving force of change in the marine Sr isotope record, supplementing temporal variations in the submarine hydrothermal flux as a source of unradiogenic Sr to seawater. Such modulations can be driven by changes in the surface exposure of volcanic arc terrains, changes in climate, ocean currents and geographic latitude due to plate tectonics, as well as topographic changes that can affect local rainfall, runoff and erosion.We acknowledge financial 302 support from NSF grant EAR-0519387, from WHOI’s Mary Sears Visitor Program, and thank the German DAAD for travel support for KF

Geochemical variations in the Central Southern Volcanic Zone, Chile (38-43°S): The role of fluids in generating arc magmas

We present new Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf-O isotope data from the volcanic arc (VA, volcanic front and rear arc) in Chile and the backarc (BA) in Argentina of the Central Southern Volcanic Zone in Chile (CSVZ; 38-43°S). Compared to the Transitional (T) SVZ (34.5-38°S; Jacques et al., 2013), the CSVZ VA has erupted greater volumes over shorter time intervals (Völker et al., 2011) and produced more tholeiitic melts. Although the CSVZ VA monogenetic cones are similar to the TSVZ VA samples, the CSVZ VA stratovolcanoes have higher ratios of highly fluid-mobile to less fluid-mobile trace elements (e.g. U/Th, Pb/Ce, Ba/Nb) and lower more- to less-incompatible fluid-immobile element ratios (e.g. La/Yb, La/Sm, Th/Yb, Nb/Yb), consistent with an overall higher fluid flux and greater degree of flux melting beneath the CSVZ stratovolcanoes compared to the CSVZ monogenetic centers and the TSVZ VA. The CSVZ monogenetic centers overlap the TSVZ in Sr and Nd isotopes, but the stratovolcanoes are shifted to higher Sr and/or Nd isotope ratios. The Pb isotopic composition of the CSVZ overlaps the TSVZ, which is clearly dominated by the composition of the trench sediments, but the CSVZ monogenetic samples extend to less radiogenic Pb isotope ratios. δ18Omelt from the CSVZ stratovolcano samples are below the MORB range, whereas the CSVZ monogenetic and the TSVZ samples fall within and slightly above the MORB range. The Nd and Hf isotopic ratios of the CSVZ VA extend to more radiogenic compositions than found in the TSVZ VA, indicating a greater contribution from a more depleted source. These correlations are interpreted to reflect derivation of fluids from hydrothermally altered oceanic crust and/or serpentinized upper mantle of the subducting plate. CSVZ BA basalts largely overlap TSVZ BA basalts, displaying less or no subduction influence compared to the VA, but some CSVZ BA basalts tap more enriched mantle, possibly subcontinental lithosphere, with distinctively lower Nd and Hf and elevated 207Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb isotope ratios

The twilight of the Liberal Social Contract? On the Reception of Rawlsian Political Liberalism

This chapter discusses the Rawlsian project of public reason, or public justification-based 'political' liberalism, and its reception. After a brief philosophical rather than philological reconstruction of the project, the chapter revolves around a distinction between idealist and realist responses to it. Focusing on political liberalism’s critical reception illuminates an overarching question: was Rawls’s revival of a contractualist approach to liberal legitimacy a fruitful move for liberalism and/or the social contract tradition? The last section contains a largely negative answer to that question. Nonetheless the chapter's conclusion shows that the research programme of political liberalism provided and continues to provide illuminating insights into the limitations of liberal contractualism, especially under conditions of persistent and radical diversity. The programme is, however, less receptive to challenges to do with the relative decline of the power of modern states