Plausible Condition Research Articles

Physical Conditions and Particle Acceleration in the Kiloparsec Jet of Centaurus A

Abstract The nonthermal emission from the kiloparsec-scale jet of Centaurus A exhibits two notable features, bright diffuse emission and many compact knots, which have been intensively studied in X-ray and radio observations. H.E.S.S. recently reported that the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from this object is extended along the jet direction beyond a kiloparsec from the core. Here, we combine these observations to constrain the physical conditions of the kiloparsec jet and study the origin of the nonthermal emission. We show that the diffuse jet is weakly magnetized ( ) and energetically dominated by thermal particles. We also show that knots are the sites of both amplified magnetic field and particle (re)acceleration. To keep sufficient energy in thermal particles, the magnetic and nonthermal particle energy in the knot regions is tightly constrained. The most plausible condition is an energy equipartition between them, . Such weak magnetic energy implies that particles in the knots are in the slow cooling regime. We suggest that the entire kiloparsec-scale diffuse emission could be powered by particles that are accelerated at and escaped from knots.

Monetary Policy, Financial Frictions, and Heterogeneous R&D Firms in an Endogenous Growth Model*

AbstractMotivated by empirical facts, I construct an endogenous growth model in which heterogeneous research and development (R&D) firms are financially constrained and use cash to finance R&D investments. I also examine the optimal monetary policy. The effects of financial constraint crucially depend on whether R&D firms are homogeneous or heterogeneous regarding R&D productivity. If R&D firms are homogeneous, then the zero nominal interest rate (i.e., the Friedman rule) is always optimal under severe financial constraint. Heterogeneity in R&D productivity leads to the opposite result. With heterogeneity, severe financial constraint makes the strictly positive nominal interest rate welfare‐improving under a plausible condition.

New orthogonality criterion for shortest vector of lattices and its applications

The security of most lattice based cryptography relies on the hardness of computing a shortest nonzero vector of lattices. We say that a lattice basis is SV-reduced if it contains a shortest nonzero vector of the lattice. In this paper, we prove that, π∕6 orthogonality between the shortest vector of the basis and the vector space spanned by other vectors of the basis is enough to be SV-reduced under the assumption that a plausible condition Cn holds. By using the π∕6 orthogonality under C2, we prove a new complexity bound log3∥x∥23detL+1 for Gauss–Lagrange algorithm which clarifies why the currently known complexity is so far fall short to expose the efficiency of the algorithm we experience in practice. Our experiments suggest that our complexity bound of Gauss–Lagrange algorithm is somewhat close to actual efficiency of the algorithm. We also show that LLL(δ) algorithm outputs a SV-reduced basis if δ≥1∕3 for two dimensional lattice. We present an efficient three dimensional SV-reduction algorithm by using the condition C3 and π∕6 orthogonality and how to generalize the algorithm for higher dimension.

The Evolution of Cognitive Biases in Human Learning

Cognitive biases like underinference, the hard-easy effect, and recurrently non-monotonic confidence are evolutionarily puzzling when viewed as persistent flaws in how people learn from environmental feedback. To explain these empirically robust cognitive biases from an evolutionary perspective, we propose a model of ancestral human learning based on the cultural-evolutionary-theoretic hypothesis that the primary selection pressure acting on ancestral human cognition pertained not to learning individually from environmental feedback, but to socially learning task-specific knowledge. In our model—which is inspired by classical Bayesian models—an ancestral human learner (the student) attempts to learn task-specific knowledge from a role model, with the option of switching between different tasks and role models. Suppose that the student's method of learning from their role model is a priori uncertain—in that it can either be successful imitation learning or de facto innovation learning—and the ecological fitness costs of meaningfully retaining environmental feedback are high. Then, the student's fitness-maximizing strategy does not retain their environmental feedback and—depending on the choice of model parameters—can be characterized by all of the aforementioned cognitive biases. Specifically, in order for the evolutionarily optimal estimate of confidence in this learning environment to be recurrently non-monotonic, it is necessary (as long as the environment's marginal payoff function satisfies a plausible quantitative condition) that a positive proportion of ancestral humans' attempted imitation learning was unknowingly implemented as de facto innovation learning. Moreover, an ecologically rational strategy of selective social learning can plausibly cause the evolutionarily optimal estimate of confidence to be recurrently non-monotonic in the empirically documented way: general increase with an intermediate period of decrease.

Arterial Hypertension and Unusual Ascending Aortic Dilatation in a Neonate With Acute Kidney Injury: Mechanistic Computer Modeling.

BackgroundNeonatal asphyxia caused kidney injury and severe hypertension in a newborn. An unusually dilatated ascending aorta developed. Dialysis and pharmacological treatment led to partial recovery of the ascending aortic diameters. It was hypothesized that the aortic dilatation may be associated with aortic stiffening, peripheral resistance, and cardiovascular changes. Mathematical modeling was used to better understand the potential causes of the hypertension, and to confirm our clinical treatment within the confines of the model’s capabilities.MethodsThe patient’s systolic arterial blood pressure showed hypertension. Echocardiographic exams showed ascending aorta dilatation during hypertension, which partially normalized upon antihypertensive treatment. To explore the underlying mechanisms of the aortic dilatation and hypertension, an existing lumped parameter hemodynamics model was deployed. Hypertension was simulated using realistic literature informed parameter values. It was also simulated using large parameter perturbations to demonstrate effects. Simulations were designed to permit examination of causal mechanisms. The hypertension inducing effects of aortic stiffnesses, vascular resistances, and cardiac hypertrophy on blood flow and pressure were simulated. Sensitivity analysis was used to stratify causes.ResultsIn agreement with our clinical diagnosis, the model showed that an increase of aortic stiffness followed by augmentation of peripheral resistance are the prime causes of realistic hypertension. Increased left ventricular elastance may also cause hypertension. Ascending aortic pressure and flow increased in the simultaneous presence of left ventricle hypertrophy and augmented small vessel resistance, which indicate a plausible condition for ascending aorta dilatation. In case of realistic hypertension, sensitivity analysis showed that the treatment of both the large vessel stiffness and small vessel resistance are more important in comparison to cardiac hypertrophy.Conclusion and DiscussionLarge vessel stiffness was found to be the prime factor in arterial hypertension, which confirmed the clinical treatment. Treatment of cardiac hypertrophy appears to provide significant benefit but may be secondary to treatment of large vessel stiffness. The quantitative grading of pathophysiological mechanisms provided by the modeling may contribute to treatment recommendations. The model was limited due to a lack of data suitable to permit model identification.

Trichotomic discounted utility

Recent evidence on intertemporal choice suggests that decision-makers may exhibit both increasing and decreasing impatience simultaneously, called inverse-S discounting. This paper introduces trichotomic discounted utility to model inverse-S discounting. Under trichotomic discounted utility the decision-maker distinguishes between short-term delays, medium-term delays, and long-term delays. Exponential discounting holds within each category, but not necessarily across each category. We provide preference foundations for trichotomic discounted utility in the timed outcomes framework and in the consumption streams framework. The key axiom is a weakening of the time consistency axiom that allows for both increasing and decreasing impatience. We also consider a weak, local version of time consistency, and show that this plausible condition is satisfied only by discount functions with exponential “pieces”.

Cadaver Rounds: A Comprehensive Exercise That Integrates Clinical Context Into Medical Gross Anatomy.

The purpose of medical schools is to train students to care for patients; however, the temporal and conceptual gap between course work and patient care may induce students to undervalue preclinical course work, thereby decreasing learning and retention. Bringing clinical context into preclinical courses reduces this problem, and many preclinical programs incorporate "cameo" appearances of clinical material. In contrast, the authors describe a comprehensive program at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine that uses the cadaver as the students' first patient to embed clinical context within preclinical anatomy. As the students' first patient, cadavers undergo modified physical exams, whole-body computed tomography scans, and pathology sample analysis. Students log daily dissection observations onto a "patient chart." Group findings are integrated, on a self-directed basis, into a final grand rounds-style presentation ("Cadaver Rounds") requiring students to synthesize longitudinally collected observations into a plausible clinical condition likely experienced by the cadaver-patient when alive. The entire exercise uses few additional contact hours (about six) and runs concurrently with the existing medical curriculum. According to course surveys used to assess students' perceptions of the relevance and effectiveness of Cadaver Rounds (2015-2017), the students' experience was highly positive. Participation by faculty and clinicians has been enthusiastic. The authors hope both to identify additional authentic clinical tasks to import into the dissection lab and to partner with other programs to adopt and evaluate this clinically centered approach to anatomy.

Semantic anomaly detection in school-aged children during natural sentence reading - A study of fixation-related brain potentials.

In this study, we investigated the effects of context-related semantic anomalies on the fixation-related brain potentials of 12–13-year-old Finnish children in grade 6 during sentence reading. The detection of such anomalies is typically reflected in the N400 event-related potential. We also examined whether the representation invoked by the sentence context extends to the orthographic representation level by replacing the final words of the sentence with an anomalous word neighbour of a plausible word. The eye-movement results show that the anomalous word neighbours of plausible words cause similar first-fixation and gaze duration reactions, as do other anomalous words. Similarly, we observed frontal negativity in the fixation-related potential of the unrelated anomalous words and in the anomalous word neighbours. This frontal negativity was larger in both anomalous conditions than in the response elicited by the plausible condition. We thus show that the brain successfully uses context to separate anomalous words from plausible words on a single letter level during free reading. From the P600 response of the scalp waveform, we observed that the P600 was delayed in the anomalous word neighbour condition. We performed group-level decomposition on the data with ICA (independent component analysis) and analysed the time course and source structure of the decomposed data. This analysis of decomposed brain signals not only confirmed the delay of the P600 response but also revealed that the frontal negativity concealed s more typical and separate N400 response, which was similarly delayed in the anomalous word neighbour condition, as was the P600 response. Source analysis of these independent components implicated the right frontal eye field as the cortical source for the frontal negativity and the middle temporal and parietal regions as cortical sources for the components resembling the N400 and P600 responses. We interpret the delays present in N400 and P600 responses to anomalous word neighbours to reflect competition with the representation of the plausible word just one letter different.

Transitory effects of personality on employee turnover

Purpose – examining transitory effects of extraversion and openness to experience on employee turnover.
 Design/Method/Approach. Fully observed recursive mixed process model.
 Findings. Results show that (i) extraversion positively predicts turnover and that (ii) openness does not predict turnover. Moreover, comparing size effects between studies reveals that only extraversion has significantly more positive effect on employee turnover, which is in contradiction with previous meta-analysis.
 Theoretical implications. This research identifies a plausible boundary condition – national culture – in examining how a person’s personality impact employee turnover in organizations. It highlights the shortcomings of previous meta-analysis that failed to incorporate differences in societal values and business contexts and identifies.
 Practical implications. In studying cultural contexts and value congruencies, this study contributes to the international human resources literature by identifying boundary conditions that explain how personality impacts employee turnover.
 Originality/Value. This study is the first to analyze the effects of personality on turnover using a within-individual unfolding and holistic model.
 Research limitations/Future research. The current study incorporates only a sample from a single country. Future research that analyzes the moderating effects of societal and business values in cross-national samples could corroborate and extend on the findings from this study.
 Paper type – empirical.

Necessary and sufficient criterion for extremal quantum correlations in the simplest Bell scenario

In the study of quantum nonlocality, one obstacle is that the analytical criterion for identifying the boundaries between quantum and postquantum correlations has not yet been given, even in the simplest Bell scenario. We propose a plausible, analytical, necessary and sufficient condition ensuring that a nonlocal quantum correlation in the simplest scenario is an extremal boundary point. Our extremality condition amounts to certifying an information-theoretical quantity; the probability of guessing a measurement outcome of a distant party optimized using any quantum instrument. We show that this quantity can be upper and lower bounded from any correlation in a device-independent way, and we use numerical calculations to confirm that coincidence of the upper and lower bounds appears to be necessary and sufficient for the extremality.

Estimated costs for treatment and prophylaxis of newborn vitamin K deficiency bleeding in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

ABSTRACTVitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) is a preventable cause of infant mortality and long-term morbidity through the world. This study aimed to demonstrate the costs of VKDB treatment estimated from the hospital records in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as well as the prophylaxis costs for mass vitamin K medication. Subjects were 50 patients with no operation and 50 patients who had received a brain operation, consecutively enrolled from 180 cases diagnosed at Republican Research Center of Emergency Medicine in 2014. In that year, an additional 22 VKDB patients were found in Tashkent; the incidence of VKDB was 478/100,000 among 42,225 newborns. The prophylaxis costs for all newborns in Tashkent were estimated under a plausible condition. The average age at admission was 43.2 days among 100 patients (67 boys and 33 girls) with birth weight from 2,600 g to 3,800 g (3,105 g on average). The great majority of patients (92.0%) were breastfed; 89.5% in boys and 97.0% in girls. Average treatment cost per VKDB patient was 365 USD for the operated and 285 USD for the non-operated. Total expenses of the 202 patients were estimated to be 64,603 USD. A single prophylaxis was estimated to cost 1.24 USD, totaling 52,359 USD for the prophylaxis of 42,225 newborns. Since the reduction of VKDB incidence through prophylaxis is considered to be higher than 78.5% (52,359/64,603), provision of prophylaxis services would reduce the total costs of VKDB treatment in Uzbekistan, where prophylaxis is not provided.

Evaluation of coral reef management effectiveness using conventional versus resilience-based metrics

With increasing stressors to coral reefs, defining tools that evaluate their dynamics and resilience is important to interpret system trajectories and direct conservation efforts. In this context, surveys must go beyond conventional monitoring approaches that focus on abundance and biomass of key groups and quantify metrics that better assess ecological processes and ecosystem trajectories. By measuring a variety of conventional (e.g. proportional cover of broad benthic groups, biomass of herbivorous fish) and complementary resilience-based metrics (e.g. algal turf height, coral recruitment rates, juvenile coral densities, herbivorous fish grazing rates), this study evaluated the ecosystem responses to community-based management in Fiji. The study was conducted across three paired tabu areas (periodically closed to fishing) and adjacent fished sites. Conventional metrics reflected no management effect on benthic or herbivorous fish assemblages. In contrast, the complementary metrics generally indicated positive effects of management, particularly within the benthos. Significant differences were observed for turf height (33% lower), coral recruitment rate (159% higher) and juvenile coral density (42% higher) within areas closed to fishing compared to adjacent open reefs. In addition, turf height was inversely related to coral recruitment and juvenile coral density, and longer turfs (≥5mm) were more competitive in interaction with corals. These results emphasise that conventional metrics may overlook benefits of local management to inshore reefs, and that incorporating complementary resilience-based metrics such as turf height into reef survey protocols will strengthen their capacity to predict the plausible future condition of reefs and their responses to disturbances.

Expectations of Fairness and Trust Co-Evolve in Environments of Partial Information

When playing one-shot economic games, individuals often blindly trust others, accepting partnerships without any information regarding the trustworthiness of their partner. Consequently, they risk deleterious pacts. Oddly, when individuals do have information about another, they reject partnerships that are not fair, despite the fact that such offers are profitable—individuals costly punish. Why would one reject profitable partnerships on the one hand, but risk unknown offers on the other? Significant research has gone into explaining the contexts where blind trust or costly punishment provides an evolutionary advantage; however, both behaviours are rarely considered in tandem. Here we demonstrate that both behaviours can simultaneously be revenue maximizing. Further, given the plausible condition of partially obscured information and partner choice, trust mediates the generation of costly punishment. This result is important because it demonstrates that the evolutionary viability of trust, fairness, and costly punishment may be linked. The adaptive nature of fairness expectations can best be explained in concert with trust.

Invasion fitness for gene–culture co-evolution in family-structured populations and an application to cumulative culture under vertical transmission

Human evolution depends on the co-evolution between genetically determined behaviors and socially transmitted information. Although vertical transmission of cultural information from parent to offspring is common in hominins, its effects on cumulative cultural evolution are not fully understood. Here, we investigate gene–culture co-evolution in a family-structured population by studying the invasion fitness of a mutant allele that influences a deterministic level of cultural information (e.g., amount of knowledge or skill) to which diploid carriers of the mutant are exposed in subsequent generations. We show that the selection gradient on such a mutant, and the concomitant level of cultural information it generates, can be evaluated analytically under the assumption that the cultural dynamic has a single attractor point, thereby making gene–culture co-evolution in family-structured populations with multigenerational effects mathematically tractable. We apply our result to study how genetically determined phenotypes of individual and social learning co-evolve with the level of adaptive information they generate under vertical transmission. We find that vertical transmission increases adaptive information due to kin selection effects, but when information is transmitted as efficiently between family members as between unrelated individuals, this increase is moderate in diploids. By contrast, we show that the way resource allocation into learning trades off with allocation into reproduction (the “learning-reproduction trade-off”) significantly influences levels of adaptive information. We also show that vertical transmission prevents evolutionary branching and may therefore play a qualitative role in gene–culture co-evolutionary dynamics. More generally, our analysis of selection suggests that vertical transmission can significantly increase levels of adaptive information under the biologically plausible condition that information transmission between relatives is more efficient than between unrelated individuals.

Responsibility in Context

Some have argued that our intuitive reactions to a number of cases of moral responsibility can only be preserved at the expense of a unified account of moral responsibility for acts and omissions. I argue against this conclusion, proposing that a plausible condition on responsibility, the Causal Condition can, when properly elaborated, justify the relevant intuitive data.

Semantic and plausibility preview benefit effects in English: Evidence from eye movements.

Theories of preview benefit in reading hinge on integration across saccades and the idea that preview benefit is greater the more similar the preview and target are. Schotter (2013) reported preview benefit from a synonymous preview, but it is unclear whether this effect occurs because of similarity between the preview and target (i.e., integration), or because of contextual fit of the preview-synonyms satisfy both accounts. Studies in Chinese have found evidence for preview benefit for words that are unrelated to the target, but are contextually plausible (Yang, Li, Wang, Slattery, & Rayner, 2014; Yang, Wang, Tong, & Rayner, 2012), which is incompatible with an integration account but supports a contextual fit account. Here, we used plausible and implausible unrelated previews in addition to plausible synonym, antonym, and identical previews to further investigate these accounts for readers of English. Early reading measures were shorter for all plausible preview conditions compared to the implausible preview condition. In later reading measures, a benefit for the plausible unrelated preview condition was not observed. In a second experiment, we asked questions that probed whether the reader encoded the preview or target. Readers were more likely to report the preview when they had skipped the word and not regressed to it, and when the preview was plausible. Thus, under certain circumstances, the preview word is processed to a high level of representation (i.e., semantic plausibility) regardless of its relationship to the target, but its influence on reading is relatively short-lived, being replaced by the target word, when fixated. (PsycINFO Database Record

Additive Consistency of Risk Measures and Its Application to Risk-Averse Routing in Networks

We investigate the use of risk measures and theories of choice to model risk-averse routing and traffic equilibrium on networks with random travel times. We interpret the postulates of these theories in the context of routing, identifying additive consistency as a plausible condition that allows to reduce risk-averse route choice to a standard shortest path problem. Within the classical theories of choice, we show that the only preferences that satisfy this condition are the ones induced by the entropic risk measures.

Aid for Trade and Global Growth

AbstractAid for trade increases a recipient's public services, which lower its import and export transport costs. Formulating a two‐country endogenous growth model, we obtain two main results. First, a permanent increase in the donor's aid/gross domestic product (GDP) ratio raises the steady‐state growth rate as well as both countries' long‐run fractions and cost shares of imported varieties if and only if it lowers the product of transport costs. Second, under a plausible condition, there exists a unique interior growth‐maximizing aid/GDP ratio. These results are robust to alternative specifications for congestion and stock‐flow nature of public goods.

Bayesian estimation inherent in a Mexican-hat-type neural network.

Brain functions, such as perception, motor control and learning, and decision making, have been explained based on a Bayesian framework, i.e., to decrease the effects of noise inherent in the human nervous system or external environment, our brain integrates sensory and a priori information in a Bayesian optimal manner. However, it remains unclear how Bayesian computations are implemented in the brain. Herein, I address this issue by analyzing a Mexican-hat-type neural network, which was used as a model of the visual cortex, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex. I analytically demonstrate that the dynamics of an order parameter in the model corresponds exactly to a variational inference of a linear Gaussian state-space model, a Bayesian estimation, when the strength of recurrent synaptic connectivity is appropriately stronger than that of an external stimulus, a plausible condition in the brain. This exact correspondence can reveal the relationship between the parameters in the Bayesian estimation and those in the neural network, providing insight for understanding brain functions.

Outsourcing the deep self: Deep self discordance does not explain away intuitions in manipulation arguments

According to manipulation arguments for incompatibilism, manipulation might undermine an agent’s responsibility even when the agent satisfies plausible compatibilist conditions on responsibility. According to Sripada (2012), however, empirical data suggest that people take manipulation to undermine responsibility largely because they think that the manipulated act is in discord with the agent’s “deep self,” thus violating the plausible compatibilist condition of deep self concordance. This paper defends Sripada’s general methodological approach but presents data that strongly suggest that, contrary to Sripada’s contention, most of the effect of manipulation on attributions of moral responsibility is unmediated by worries about inadequate information or deep self discordance. Instead, it depends largely on worries that the action is ultimately explained by factors outside the agent’s control, just as proponents of manipulation arguments have proposed. More generally, data suggest that judgments of deep self discordance are themselves explained by worries about responsibility, and that the everyday notion of what an agent wants or is “deep down” is sensitive not only to the agent’s internal psychological structure, but also its source. This casts some doubt on recent claims about the explanatory role of deep self judgments.