Inducing false memories by manipulating memory self-efficacy

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and false memories using the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm, whereby people falsely remember words not presented in lists. In two studies participants were presented with DRM lists and asked to recall and recognize presented items. In the first study, we found a significant relationship between memory self-efficacy (MSE) and susceptibility to associative memory illusions, both in recall and recognition. They also received the Memory Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (MSEQ), the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) and the backward digit span (BDS) test. In the second study, MSE was manipulated in order to assess whether changes influenced the sensitivity parameter in DRM tasks. Results showed that the manipulation was effective in decreasing self-efficacy, which in turn affected the probability of reporting critical lures as well as sensitivity. Possible explanations for the effect are discussed

Bank Runs in Open Economies and The International Transmission of Panics

In this paper, we extend the bank run literature to an open economy model. We show that a foreign banking system, by raising deposit rates in the presence of a domestic banking panic, may generate sufficient liquid resources to acquire assets sold by the domestic banking system at bargain prices. In this case, foreign depositors will benefit from the domestic panic. We also show that our simple model is able to generate the spreading of panics. Perhaps not surprisingly, the crucial element in determining the propagation of financial crises is the effect of interest rates on savings decisions.

Quantum relative positioning in Hilbert space

A new class of state transformations that are quantum mechanically prohibited is introduced. These can be seen as the generalization of the universal-NOT transformation which, for all pure inputs state of a given Hilbert space produces pure outputs whose projection on the original state is fixed to a value smaller than one. The case of not pure output states is also addressed. We give an application of these transformations in the context of separability criteria.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; new material added: in particular we present an application of quantum movers in the context of separability criteria. Typos corrected. Phys. Rev. A, accepted for publicatio

Modulated phases of graphene quantum Hall polariton fluids

There is growing experimental interest in coupling cavity photons to the cyclotron resonance excitations of electron liquids in high-mobility semiconductor quantum wells or graphene sheets. These media offer unique platforms to carry out fundamental studies of exciton-polariton condensation and cavity quantum electrodynamics in a regime in which electron-electron interactions are expected to play a pivotal role. Focusing on graphene, we present a theoretical study of the impact of electron-electron interactions on a quantum Hall polariton fluid, that is a fluid of magneto-excitons resonantly coupled to cavity photons. We show that electron-electron interactions are responsible for an instability of graphene integer quantum Hall polariton fluids towards a modulated phase. We demonstrate that this phase can be detected by measuring the collective excitation spectra, which soften at a characteristic wave vector of the order of the inverse magnetic length.Comment: 26+17 pages, 5+3 figure

The meaning of different forms of structural myocardial injury, immune response and timing of infarct necrosis and cardiac repair

Although a decline in the all-cause and cardiac mortality rates following myocardial infarction (MI) during the past 3 decades has been reported, MI is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. From a pathological point of view MI consists in a particular myocardial cell death due to prolonged ischemia. After the onset of myocardial ischemia, cell death is not immediate, but takes a finite period of time to develop. Once complete myocytes’ necrosis has occurred, a process leading to a healed infarction takes place. In fact, MI is a dynamic process that begins with the transition from reversible to irreversible ischemic injury and culminates in the replacement of dead myocardium by a fibrous scar. The pathobiological mechanisms underlying this process are very complex, involving an inflammatory response by several pathways, and pose a major challenge to ability to improve our knowledge. An improved understanding of the pathobiology of cardiac repair after MI and further studies of its underlying mechanisms provide avenues for the development of future strategies directed toward the identification of novel therapies. The chronologic dating of MI is of great importance both to clinical and forensic investigation, that is, the ability to create a theoretical timeline upon which either clinicians or forensic pathologists may increase their ability to estimate the time of MI. Aging of MI has very important practical implications in clinical practice since, based on the chronological dating of MI, attractive alternatives to solve therapeutic strategies in the various phases of MI are developing

Inequalities for quantum channels assisted by limited resources

The information capacities and ``distillability'' of a quantum channel are studied in the presence of auxiliary resources. These include prior entanglement shared between the sender and receiver and free classical bits of forward and backward communication. Inequalities and trade-off curves are derived. In particular an alternative proof is given that in the absence of feedback and shared entanglement, forward classical communication does not increase the quantum capacity of a channel.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures (references updated, minor changes