Single-Pixel Imaging with Heralded Single Photons

Traditional remote sensing applications are often based on pulsed laser illumination with a narrow linewidth and characteristic repetition rate, which are not conducive to covert operation. Whatever methods are employed for covert sensing, a key requirement is for the probe light to be indistinguishable from background illumination. We present a method to perform single-pixel imaging that suppresses the effect of background light and hence improves the signal-to-noise ratio by using correlated photon-pairs produced via spontaneous parametric down conversion. One of the photons in the pair is used to illuminate the object whilst the other acts as a temporal reference, allowing the signal photons to be distinguished from background noise. This heralding method shows how the noise regime is key to producing higher contrast images.

PLUPERFECT – ABSOLUTE, RELATIVE OR ABSOLUTE-RELATIVE TEMPORAL FORM?

The article is devoted to the problem of grammatical status of pluperfect forms of German and Ukrainian languages. The study differentiates the views of scientists on pluperfect forms in terms of their relative or absolute interpretation. The definition of the pluperfect with the future temporal reference is given, confirmed by applied representations and analysis of the studied units in the sentence structure. From the point of view of traditional linguistic interpretation, pluperfect is a form that expresses either “precedence over another past action” or “distant past”. However, in this study, we look at new meanings of this grammar: “present” or “future”.The article raises the problem of the futural orientation of pluperfect forms, based on two positions: when pluperfect is used in the sense of “past” in relation to another past action. That is, when this gram is in opposition to its conventional meaning; when the plusquamperfect expresses the meaning of “counterfactual” with the future temporal reference, when the subject of the statement knows that in the real world certain actions cannot be realized because they contradict the objective laws of human existence. The use of the pluperfect forms in such constructions indicates that language not only does not limit us by means of expressing real knowledge about the world, but also provides such for the reproduction of hypothetical, unreal or counterfactual statements.It is concluded that from the point of view of temporality, the conjunctive forms of the pluperfect are timeless and can express the action that occurs at the time of speech, occurred (or could occur) before the moment of speech or will occur after the moment of speech, the temporal nature of the verbal form recedes into the background. It is proposed to consider plusquamperfect as an absolute-relative time form.Key words: pluperfect, absolute time, relative time, moment of speech, counterfactuality. Статтю присвячено актуальній проблемі граматичного статусу плюсквамперфектних форм німецької та української мов. У дослідженні диференційовано погляди науковців щодо плюсквамперфектних форм із боку їх відносної чи абсолютної інтерпретації. Подається визначення плюсквамперфекта з майбутньою часовою рефе-ренцією, підтверджене прикладними репрезентаціями й аналізом досліджуваних одиниць у структурі речення. З боку традиційного лінгвістичного трактування плюсквамперфект – це форма, яка виражає або «передування щодо іншої минулої дії», або «віддалене минуле». Однак у дослідженні звертаємо увагу на нові значення цієї гра-меми: «теперішнє» чи «майбутнє».У статті висувається проблема футуральної спрямованості плюсквамперфектних форм, виходячи з двох позицій: коли плюсквамперфект вживається в значенні «післяминуле» щодо іншої минулої дії, тобто коли ця грамема опозиціонує своєму загальноприйнятому значенню; коли плюсквамперфект виражає значення «контр-фактичність» із майбутньою часовою референцією – суб’єкт висловлення знає, що в реальному світі певні дії не можуть бути реалізовані, оскільки суперечать об’єктивним законам людського існування. Вживання плюсквам-перфектних форм у подібних конструкціях свідчить про те, що мова не лише не обмежує нас засобами вираження реальних знань про світ, а й надає такі для відтворення гіпотетичних, ірреальних чи контрфактичних висловлень.Зроблено висновок, що з позиції темпоральності форми плюсквамперфекта кон’юнктива є позачасовими й можуть виражати дію, що відбувається в момент мовлення, відбувалася (чи могла відбутися) раніше моменту мовлення або відбудеться після моменту мовлення, оскільки в зіставленні часу й способу переважає спосіб дієслова, а часовий характер вербальної форми відходить на другий план. Запропоновано розглядати плюсквампер-фект як абсолютно-відносну часову форму.Ключові слова: плюсквамперфект, абсолютний час, відносний час, момент мовлення, контрфактичність

The categorical use of a continuous time representation

The abstract concept of time is mentally represented as a spatially oriented line, with the past associated with the left space and the future associated with the right. Although the line is supposed to be continuous, most available evidence is also consistent with a categorical representation that only discriminates between past and future. The aim of the present study was to test the continuous or categorical nature of the mental timeline. Italian participants judged the temporal reference of 20 temporal expressions by pressing keys on either the left or the right. In Experiment 1 (N = 32), all words were presented at the center of the screen. In Experiment 2 (N = 32), each word was presented on the screen in a central, left, or right position. In Experiment 3 (N = 32), all text was mirror-reversed. In all experiments, participants were asked to place the 20 temporal expressions on a 10-cm line. The results showed a clear Spatial–TEmporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect which did not vary in strength depending on the location of the temporal expressions on the line. However, there was also a clear Distance effect: latencies were slower for words that were closer to the present than further away. We conclude that the mental timeline is a continuous representation that can be used in a categorical way when an explicit past vs. future discrimination is required by the task.

Equivalence of Approaches to Relational Quantum Dynamics in Relativistic Settings

We have previously shown that three approaches to relational quantum dynamics—relational Dirac observables, the Page-Wootters formalism and quantum deparametrizations—are equivalent. Here we show that this “trinity” of relational quantum dynamics holds in relativistic settings per frequency superselection sector. Time according to a clock subsystem is defined via a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) that is covariant with respect to the group generated by its (quadratic) Hamiltonian. This differs from the usual choice of a self-adjoint clock observable conjugate to the clock momentum. It also resolves Kuchař's criticism that the Page-Wootters formalism yields incorrect localization probabilities for the relativistic particle when conditioning on a Minkowski time operator. We show that conditioning instead on the covariant clock POVM results in a Newton-Wigner type localization probability commonly used in relativistic quantum mechanics. By establishing the equivalence mentioned above, we also assign a consistent conditional-probability interpretation to relational observables and deparametrizations. Finally, we expand a recent method of changing temporal reference frames, and show how to transform states and observables frequency-sector-wise. We use this method to discuss an indirect clock self-reference effect and explore the state and temporal frame-dependence of the task of comparing and synchronizing different quantum clocks.

Research on Data Currency Rule and Quality Evaluation

Data currency is a temporal reference of data, it reflects the degree to which the data is current with the worldit models. Currency rule is a formal rule extracted from the data set and reflecting the currency order of thedata tuples, it can be used for both data repairing and currency quality evaluation. Based on the research of datacurrency repairing, the basic form of currency rule is extended, and parallel rule extraction and update algorithmsare proposed to meet the requirement of running on dynamic data sets. Besides, four data currency qualityevaluation models are proposed and verified by experiments. The performance test show that the efficiencyof parallel algorithms is significantly improved, the rules compliance mean(CM2) model based on extendedcurrency rule has the highest average precision. The extended currency rules not only improve the efficiencyand adaptability, but also provide more valuable features for data quality evaluation.

Unweaving the embodied nature of English temporal prepositions

The metaphor time is space (Lakoff & Johnson 1999) and the pervasiveness of metaphor and image-schematic structure in human conceptualization (Johnson 1987; Hampe 2005) have been widely accepted among cognitive scientists as constructs that help explain non-spatial and temporal linguistic constructions. However, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) might not be the whole story. While it is acceptable that moments in time can be construed as being analogous to points in space as in utterances such as at the corner vs. at 2:30, there seems to be much more temporal cognition than previously thought. It turns out that time exhibits its own structure (following Evans 2004, 2013; Galton 2011) that is based on transience. This idea has made some scholars support the weak version of CMT which posits that the temporal meaning of prepositions is represented and processed independently of the corresponding spatial meanings (see Kemmerer 2005 for such a view). The present article supports the idea that spatial and temporal structures complement each other in order to achieve temporal conceptions. This is indeed a conceptual pattern showed by the English preposition at that makes use of an extrinsic temporal reference to activate its temporal semantics. To analyze the different temporal realizations that at may have, the paper aims to identify the topological structure that underlies the conceptual basis of this preposition. This allows us to appreciate how the spatio-conceptual structure of at partially structures temporal conceptions. The paper also identifies the nature of the temporal structure that is involved in temporal realizations. The article concludes with some remarks, among them the pivotal role of the schematic temporal structure that is captured by the extrinsic temporal reference, and the role of conceptual metaphor in underdetermining temporal thinking.

Do Creoles conform to typological patterns? Habitual marking in Palenquero

It is widely debated whether creole languages form a typological class; however, crosslinguistic generalizations from functional typology are seldom tested in creoles. Typological studies report a strong crosslinguistic tendency for asymmetries in habitual grammatical expressions across the present and past temporal reference domains (Bybee, 1994:245–8; Bybee, Perkins, & Pagliuca, 1994:151–60). This study analyzes two linguistic variants, preverbal asé and zero, which compete for habitual marking in Palenquero Creole (Colombia). I ask here: To what degree does the linguistic patterning of these forms conform to the crosslinguistic tendency? Results show that, despite Palenquero having widely cited creole features (e.g., preverbal markers and bare verb stems), the asymmetrical expression, distribution, and relative ordering of forms in the variable contexts closely align with crosslinguistic predictions for habituals, thus giving convincing evidence of typological markedness and not a Creole Prototype.

Students’ attitudes towards performance heterogeneity and their relation to contextual factors

Previous studies examining attitudes towards performance heterogeneity have focused on attitudes among teachers. However, positive attitudes towards the school environment are also assumed to be conducive for students. The aim of this paper is to examine students’ attitudes towards performance heterogeneity with a sample of 784 5th-grade students. Based on the three-component theory of attitudes (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993), we investigated whether students’ attitudes towards performance heterogeneity are positive or negative. Furthermore, we analyzed contextual relations, focusing on whether students’ attitudes are linked to performance heterogeneity in the classroom and to a teachers’ behavior to manage performance heterogeneity. Descriptive statistics show that students’ attitudes towards performance heterogeneity are rather positive. Multi-level structural equation models reveal that contextual rather than individual characteristics relate to students’ attitudes towards performance heterogeneity. Accordingly, students in heterogeneous classes show a more positive attitude towards performance heterogeneity than students in less heterogeneous classes. In addition, a teachers’ capability of professionally managing heterogeneity is positively associated with students’ attitudes towards performance heterogeneity. Accordingly, students’ show more positive attitudes if teachers implement rules, effectively manage disruptions, orient themselves towards temporal reference norms, cultivate a positive error culture, and differentiate instruction in the classroom. We will discuss our results and consider implications for psychological aspects of education and learning.