Implications of Bohmian quantum ontology for psychopathology

This article discusses the prospects of quantum psychiatry from a Bohmian point of view, which provides an ontological interpretation of quantum theory, and extends such ontology to include mind. At first, we discuss the more general relevance of quantum theory to psychopathology. The basic idea is that because quantum theory emphasizes the role of wholeness, it might be relevant to psychopathology, where breakdown of unity in the mental domain is a key feature. We then discuss the role of information in psychopathology, and consider the connections with quantum theory in this area. In particular, we discuss David Bohm’s notion of active information, which arises in the ontological interpretation of quantum theory, and is suggested to play a fundamental role as the bridge between mind and matter. Some such bridge is needed if we are to understand how subtle mental properties are able to influence more manifest physical properties in the brain (all the way to the molecular and possibly microtubular level), and how changes in those possibly quantum‐level physical processes are able to influence higher cognitive functions. We also consider the implications of the notion of active information for psychopathology. The prospects of implementing the Bohmian scheme in neuroquantal terms are then briefly considered. Finally, we discuss some possible therapeutic implications of Bohm’s approach to information and the relation of mind and matter.

Implications of Bohmian quantum ontology for psychopathology

This article discusses the prospects of quantum psychiatry from a Bohmian point of view, which provides an ontological interpretation of quantum theory, and extends such ontology to include mind. At first, we discuss the more general relevance of quantum theory to psychopathology. The basic idea is that because quantum theory emphasizes the role of wholeness, it might be relevant to psychopathology, where breakdown of unity in the mental domain is a key feature. We then discuss the role of information in psychopathology, and consider the connections with quantum theory in this area. In particular, we discuss David Bohm’s notion of active information, which arises in the ontological interpretation of quantum theory, and is suggested to play a fundamental role as the bridge between mind and matter. Some such bridge is needed if we are to understand how subtle mental properties are able to influence more manifest physical properties in the brain (all the way to the molecular and possibly microtubular level), and how changes in those possibly quantum‐level physical processes are able to influence higher cognitive functions. We also consider the implications of the notion of active information for psychopathology. The prospects of implementing the Bohmian scheme in neuroquantal terms are then briefly considered. Finally, we discuss some possible therapeutic implications of Bohm’s approach to information and the relation of mind and matter.

Feature integration in human vision

The earliest stages of human cortical visual processing can be conceived as extraction of local stimulus features. However, more complex visual functions, such as object recognition, require integration of multiple features. Recently, neural processes underlying feature integration in the visual system have been under intensive study. A specialized mid-level stage preceding the object recognition stage has been proposed to account for the processing of contours, surfaces and shapes as well as configuration. This thesis consists of four experimental, psychophysical studies on human visual feature integration. In two studies, classification image a recently developed psychophysical reverse correlation method was used. In this method visual noise is added to near-threshold stimuli. By investigating the relationship between random features in the noise and observer s perceptual decision in each trial, it is possible to estimate what features of the stimuli are critical for the task. The method allows visualizing the critical features that are used in a psychophysical task directly as a spatial correlation map, yielding an effective "behavioral receptive field". Visual context is known to modulate the perception of stimulus features. Some of these interactions are quite complex, and it is not known whether they reflect early or late stages of perceptual processing. The first study investigated the mechanisms of collinear facilitation, where nearby collinear Gabor flankers increase the detectability of a central Gabor. The behavioral receptive field of the mechanism mediating the detection of the central Gabor stimulus was measured by the classification image method. The results show that collinear flankers increase the extent of the behavioral receptive field for the central Gabor, in the direction of the flankers. The increased sensitivity at the ends of the receptive field suggests a low-level explanation for the facilitation. The second study investigated how visual features are integrated into percepts of surface brightness. A novel variant of the classification image method with brightness matching task was used. Many theories assume that perceived brightness is based on the analysis of luminance border features. Here, for the first time this assumption was directly tested. The classification images show that the perceived brightness of both an illusory Craik-O Brien-Cornsweet stimulus and a real uniform step stimulus depends solely on the border. Moreover, the spatial tuning of the features remains almost constant when the stimulus size is changed, suggesting that brightness perception is based on the output of a single spatial frequency channel. The third and fourth studies investigated global form integration in random-dot Glass patterns. In these patterns, a global form can be immediately perceived, if even a small proportion of random dots are paired to dipoles according to a geometrical rule. In the third study the discrimination of orientation structure in highly coherent concentric and Cartesian (straight) Glass patterns was measured. The results showed that the global form was more efficiently discriminated in concentric patterns. The fourth study investigated how form detectability depends on the global regularity of the Glass pattern. The local structure was either Cartesian or curved. It was shown that randomizing the local orientation deteriorated the performance only with the curved pattern. The results give support for the idea that curved and Cartesian patterns are processed in at least partially separate neural systems.

Microarrays in Lung Cancer Research: From Comparative Analyses to Verified Findings

Keuhkosyöpä on yleisimpiä syöpätauteja. Se jaetaan kahteen päätyyppiin: pienisoluiseen ja ei-pienisoluiseen keuhkosyöpään. Ei-pienisoluinen keuhkosyöpä jaetaan lisäksi alatyyppeihin, joista suurimmat ovat levyepiteeli-, adeno- ja suurisoluinen karsinooma. Keuhkosyövän tärkein riskitekijä on tupakointi, mutta muutkin työ- ja elinympäristön altisteet, kuten asbesti, voivat johtaa syöpään. Väitöstyössä tutkittiin kahdenlaisten keuhkosyöpäryhmien erityispiirteitä. Työssä kartoitettiin, onko löydettävissä muutoksia, jotka erottavat asbestikeuhkosyövät muista syövistä sekä luuytimeen varhaisessa vaiheessa leviävät keuhkosyövät leviämättömistä syövistä. Tutkimusten ensimmäisessä vaiheessa käytettiin mikrosirupohjaisia menetelmiä, jotka mahdollistavat jopa kaikkien geenien tarkastelun yhden kokeen avulla. Vertailevien mikrosirututkimusten avulla on mahdollista paikantaa geenejä tai kromosomialueita, joiden muutokset erottelevat ryhmät toisistaan. Asbestiin liittyvissä tutkimuksissa paikannettiin kuusi kromosomialuetta, joissa geenien kopiolukumäärän sekä ilmenemistason muutokset erottelivat potilaat altistushistorian mukaan. Riippumattomilla laboratoriomenetelmillä tehtyjen jatkoanalyysien avulla pystyttiin varmistamaan, että 19p-alueen häviämä oli yhteydessä asbestialtistukseen. Työssä osoitettiin myös, että 19p-alueen muutoksia voidaan indusoida altistamalla soluja asbestille in vitro. Tutkimuksessa saatiin lisäksi viitteitä asbestispesifisistä muutoksista signaalinvälitysreiteissä, sillä yhdessä toimivien geenien ilmentymisessä havaittiin eroja asbestille altistuneiden ja altistumattomien välillä. Vertailemalla luuytimeen syövän aikaisessa vaiheessa levinneiden ja leviämättömien keuhkoadenokarsinoomien muutosprofiileita toisiinsa, paikannettiin viisi aluetta, joilla geenien kopiolukumäärä- sekä ilmenemistason muutokset erottelivat ryhmät toisistaan. Jatkoanalyyseissä havaittiin, että 4q-alueen häviämää esiintyi adenokarsinoomien lisäksi levyepiteelikarsinoomiin, jotka olivat levinneet luuytimeen. Myös keuhkosyöpien aivometastaaseissa alue oli toistuvasti hävinnyt. Väitöstyön tutkimukset osoittavat, että vertailevien mikrosiruanalyysien avulla saadaan tietoa syöpäryhmien erityispiirteistä. Työssä saadut tulokset osoittavat, että 19p-alueen muutokset ovat tyypillisiä asbestikeuhkosyöville ja 4q-alueen muutokset luuytimeen aikaisessa vaiheessa leviäville keuhkosyöville.

A Hub System for Cloud-Computing Based Business-Collaboration: Automating Ontology-Enabled Electronic Business-Service Discovery

The management and coordination of business-process collaboration experiences changes because of globalization, specialization, and innovation. Service-oriented computing (SOC) is a means towards businessprocess automation and recently, many industry standards emerged to become part of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) stack. In a globalized world, organizations face new challenges for setting up and carrying out collaborations in semi-automating ecosystems for business services. For being efficient and effective, many companies express their services electronically in what we term business-process as a service (BPaaS). Companies then source BPaaS on the fly from third parties if they are not able to create all service-value inhouse because of reasons such as lack of reasoures, lack of know-how, cost- and time-reduction needs. Thus, a need emerges for BPaaS-HUBs that not only store service offers and requests together with information about their issuing organizations and assigned owners, but that also allow an evaluation of trust and reputation in an anonymized electronic service marketplace. In this paper, we analyze the requirements, design architecture and system behavior of such a BPaaS-HUB to enable a fast setup and enactment of business-process collaboration. Moving into a cloud-computing setting, the results of this paper allow system designers to quickly evaluate which services they need for instantiationg the BPaaS-HUB architecture. Furthermore, the results also show what the protocol of a backbone service bus is that allows a communication between services that implement the BPaaS-HUB. Finally, the paper analyzes where an instantiation must assign additional computing resources vor the avoidance of performance bottlenecks.