Idealistic quantum psychopathology : a way forward?

Quantum psychopathology holds the so called “quantum mind” hypothesis, which is controversial. In addition, this hypothesis focuses attention onto quantum processes in the brain, and how this may relate to psychopathological issues. This is very “low level”. As a consequence, it is challenging to form bridges to “higher level” problems related to psychopathology. By adopting the stance used in the quantum interaction community or researchers, this reply puts forward the idea that an idealistic approach may circumvent the controversy and opens the way for addressing challenges at higher levels of psychopathology.

Google book search settlement : implications for Australia

In 2005, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Authors Guild (AG) sued Google for ‘massive copyright infringement’ for the mass digitization of books for the Google Book Search Project. In 2008, the parties reached a settlement, pending court approval. If approved, the settlement could have far-reaching consequences for authors, libraries, educational institutions and the reading public. In this article, I provide an overview of the Google Book Search Settlement. Firstly, I explain the Google Book Search Project, the legal questions raised by the Project and the lawsuit brought against Google. Secondly, I examine the terms of the Settlement Agreement, including what rights were granted between the parties and what rights were granted to the general public. Finally, I consider the implications of the settlement for Australia. The Settlement Agreement, and consequently the broader scope of the Google Book Search Project, is currently limited to the United States. In this article I consider whether the Project could be extended to Australia at a later date, how Google might go about doing this, and the implications of such an extension under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). I argue that without prior agreements with rightholders, our limited exceptions to copyright infringement mean that Google is unlikely to be able to extend the full scope of the Project to Australia without infringing copyright.

In search of Chinese jurisprudence : does Chinese legal tradition have a place in China's future?

Questions the extent to which Westerrn commercial laws adopted by China, particularly in its Company Laws of 1993 and 1995, are comptaible with China's different cultural and legal traditions. Suggests that Western concepts of the rule of law and of corporate governance are alient to China. Outlines the development of the Western legal tradition. based on Judaeo-Christian beliefs and legal rationalism. Compares this with the deveopment of the Chinese legal tradtion, based on Confucianism and legalism. Proposes ways in which the two traditions could be reconciled more effectively.

In search of good governance for Asian family listed companies : a case study on Hong Kong

Discusses the importation of Western concepts of corporate governance into Hong Kong where many companies are family companies to which Asian culture is more familiar. Considers different models of corporate governance and questions the application of Western structures to family owned companies. Examines the weaknesses inherent in the typical structure of Asian companies, particularly from the point of view of minority shareholders. Suggests that a system of governance based on Confucian philosophy may be more effective in Hong Kong.

Willingness to buy GM food products : the role of uncertainty orientation, consumer risk perceptions and information search in consumers from Australia

Genetically modified (GM) food products are the source of much controversy and in the context of consumer behaviour, the way in which consumers perceive such food products is of paramount importance both theoretically and practically. Despite this, relatively little research has focused on GM food products from a consumer perspective, and as such, this study seeks to better understand what effects consumer willingness to buy GM food products in Australian consumers.

Quantum coins

One of the earliest cryptographic applications of quantum information was to create quantum digital cash that could not be counterfeited. In this paper, we describe a new type of quantum money: quantum coins, where all coins of the same denomination are represented by identical quantum states. We state desirable security properties such as anonymity and unforgeability and propose two candidate quantum coin schemes: one using black box operations, and another using blind quantum computation.

Quantum Mechanics of Semantic Space

Presentation about information modelling and artificial intelligence, semantic structure, cognitive processing and quantum theory.

Tactical driver lane change model using forward search

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a tactical lane change model using the forward search algorithm, for use in a traffic simulator. The tactical lane change model constructs a set of possible choices of near-term maneuver sequences available to the driver and selects the lane change action at the present time to realize the best maneuver plan. Including near term maneuver planning in the driver behavior model can allow a better representation of the complex interactions in situations such as a weaving section and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane systems where drivers must weave across several lanes in order to access the HOV lanes. To support the investigation, a longitudinal control model and a basic lane change model were also analyzed. The basic lane change model is similar to those used by today's commonly-used traffic simulators. Parameters in all models were best-fit estimated for selected vehicles from a real-world freeway vehicle trajectory data set. The best-fit estimation procedure minimizes the discrepancy between the model vehicle and real vehicle's trajectories. With the best fit parameters, the proposed tactical lane change model gave a better overall performance for a greater number of cases than the basic lane change model.

Quantum theory beyond the physical : information in context

Measures and theories of information abound, but there are few formalised methods for treating the contextuality that can manifest in different information systems. Quantum theory provides one possible formalism for treating information in context. This paper introduces a quantum-like model of the human mental lexicon, and shows one set of recent experimental data suggesting that concept combinations can indeed behave non-separably. There is some reason to believe that the human mental lexicon displays entanglement.

Semantic search and inferencing in health informatics

Consider a person searching electronic health records, a search for the term ‘cracked skull’ should return documents that contain the term ‘cranium fracture’. A information retrieval systems is required that matches concepts, not just keywords. Further more, determining relevance of a query to a document requires inference – its not simply matching concepts. For example a document containing ‘dialysis machine’ should align with a query for ‘kidney disease’. Collectively we describe this problem as the ‘semantic gap’ – the difference between the raw medical data and the way a human interprets it. This paper presents an approach to semantic search of health records by combining two previous approaches: an ontological approach using the SNOMED CT medical ontology; and a distributional approach using semantic space vector space models. Our approach will be applied to a specific problem in health informatics: the matching of electronic patient records to clinical trials.

Railway junction conflict resolution by local search method

This study investigates the application of local search methods on the railway junction traffic conflict-resolution problem, with the objective of attaining a quick and reasonable solution. A procedure based on local search relies on finding a better solution than the current one by a search in the neighbourhood of the current one. The structure of neighbourhood is therefore very important to an efficient local search procedure. In this paper, the formulation of the structure of the solution, which is the right-of-way sequence assignment, is first described. Two new neighbourhood definitions are then proposed and the performance of the corresponding local search procedures is evaluated by simulation. It has been shown that they provide similar results but they can be used to handle different traffic conditions and system requirements.

User-web interactions : how wholistic/analytic web users search the web?

User-Web interactions have emerged as an important research in the field of information science. In this study, we examine extensively the Web searching performed by general users. Our goal is to investigate the effects of users’ cognitive styles on their Web search behavior in relation to two broad components: Information Searching and Information Processing Approaches. We use questionnaires, a measure of cognitive style, Web session logs and think-aloud as the data collection instruments. Our study findings show wholistic Web users tend to adopt a top-down approach to Web searching, where the users searched for a generic topic, and then reformulate their queries to search for specific information. They tend to prefer reading to process information. Analytic users tend to prefer a bottom-up approach to information searching and they process information by scanning search result pages.