According to orthodoxy the study of the Soritical and semantical paradoxes belongs to the domain of the philosophy of language. To solve these paradoxes we need to investigate the nature of words like `heap' and `true.' In this thesis I criticise linguistic explanations of the state of ignorance we find ourselves in when confronted with indeterminate cases and develop a classical non-linguistic theory of indeterminacy in its stead. The view places the study of vagueness and indeterminacy squarely in epistemological terms, situating it within a theory of rational propositional attitudes. The resulting view is applied to a number of problems in the philosophy of vagueness and the semantic paradoxes.

Urban green spaces are one of the layers of urban pattern. The urban environment is created through the complex relationships between natural, social, economic, and politic dynamics. Similar to the urban environment, as a produced landscape, characteristics of urban green spaces vary according to the social, economic, cultural and ecological context of urban society. In the last few decades, the &ldquo / quality of urban life target&rdquo / included in the sustainability approach, has became an important touchstone to increase the quality of urban environment in today&rsquo / s world / with its tendencies of covering of perpetual subjective values and in addition to objective conditions to identify &ldquo / individual&rsquo / s satisfaction&rdquo / as a target the by, of keeping its evaluation scope broad and holistic, and of deriving supporting the daily life practices which derive from participatory processes. Among the quality of life perspective, urban green spaces are interpretated in a holistic and broad framework in boundaries of their contributions to the inhabitants&rsquo / well-being through their physical, social, economic and ecological links with life in a broad scale spectrum ranging from individual level to city scale. In today&rsquo / s urban environment, Ankara&rsquo / s urban green spaces are planned by the responsible agents within a narrow framework / separated from urban and urban life, lacked of this multi-scale and multi-dimensional perspective, stucked in the sectoral targets of institutions. At this point, the study identifies the priorities and conditions to re-establish a well-functioned planning process for the green spaces of Ankara with a particular attention to quality of life.

Robust regression is a commonly required approach in industrial studies like data mining, quality control and improvement, and finance areas. Among the robust regression methods / Least Median Squares, Least Trimmed Squares, Mregression, MM-method, Least Absolute Deviations, Locally Weighted Scatter Plot Smoothing and Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines are compared under contaminated normal distributions with each other and Ordinary Least Squares with respect to the multiple outlier detection performance measures. In this comparison / a simulation study is performed by changing some of the parameters such as outlier density, outlier locations in the x-axis, sample size and number of independent variables. In the comparison of the methods, multiple outlier detection is carried out with respect to the performance measures detection capability, false alarm rate and improved mean square error and ratio of improved mean square error. As a result of this simulation study, the three most competitive methods are compared on an industrial data set with respect to the coefficient of multiple determination and mean square error.

Today, mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets have become ubiquitous and are used everywhere. Millions of software applications can be purchased and installed on these devices, customizing them to personal interests and needs. However, the frequent use of mobile devices has let a new problem become omnipresent: their limited operation time, due to their limited energy capacities. Although energy consumption can be considered as being a hardware problem, the amount of energy required by today’s mobile devices highly depends on their current workloads, being highly influenced by the software running on them. Thus, although only hardware modules are consuming energy, operating systems, middleware services, and mobile applications highly influence the energy consumption of mobile devices, depending on how efficient they use and control hardware modules. Nevertheless, most of today’s mobile applications totally ignore their influence on the devices’ energy consumption, leading to energy wastes, shorter operation times, and thus, frustrated application users. A major reason for this energy-unawareness is the lack for appropriate tooling for the development of energy-aware mobile applications. As many mobile applications are today behaving energy-unaware and various mobile applications providing similar services exist, mobile application users aim to optimize their devices by installing applications being known as energy-saving or energy-aware; meaning that they consume less energy while providing the same services as their competitors. However, scarce information on the applications’ energy usage is available and, thus, users are forced to install and try many applications manually, before finding the applications fulfilling their personal functional, non-functional, and energy requirements. This thesis addresses the lack of tooling for the development of energy-aware mobile applications and the lack of comparability of mobile applications in terms of energy-awareness with the following two contributions: First, it proposes JouleUnit, an energy profiling and testing framework using unit-tests for the execution of application workloads while profiling their energy consumption in parallel. By extending a well-known testing concept and providing tooling integrated into the development environment Eclipse, JouleUnit requires a low learning curve for the integration into existing development and testing processes. Second, for the comparability of mobile applications in terms of energy efficiency, this thesis proposes an energy benchmarking and labeling service. Mobile applications belonging to the same usage domain are energy-profiled while executing a usage-domain specific benchmark in parallel. Thus, their energy consumption for specific use cases can be evaluated and compared afterwards. To abstract and summarize the profiling results, energy labels are derived that summarize the applications’ energy consumption over all evaluated use cases as a simple energy grade, ranging from A to G. Besides, users can decide how to weigh specific use cases for the computation of energy grades, as it is likely that different users use the same applications differently. The energy labeling service has been implemented for Android applications and evaluated for three different usage domains (being web browsers, email clients, and live wallpapers), showing that different mobile applications indeed differ in their energy consumption for the same services and, thus, their comparison is both possible and sensible. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first approach providing mobile application users comparable energy consumption information on mobile applications without installing and testing them on their own mobile devices.

Geostatistics and more specifically stochastic modeling of reservoir heterogeneities are being increasingly considered by reservoir analysts and engineers for their potential in generating more accurate reservoir models together with usable measures of spatial uncertainty. Geostatistics provides a probabilistic framework and a toolbox for data analysis with early integration of information. The uncertainty about the spatial distribution of critical reservoir parameters is modeled and transferred all the way to a risk conscious reservoir management. The stochastic imaging (modeling) algorithms allow the generation of multiple, equiprobable, unsmoothed reservoir models yet all honoring the data available. This thesis presents stochastic reserve estimation methods as related to the various stages of development of an oil field. Advances in technology are leading to better deterministic estimates as well as stochastic estimates with narrower ranges. Practices in the industry vary from complete dedication to deterministic or stochastic to a choice of the method depending on the stage of the development. In this study, reserves are calculated from the data available in Southeastern Turkey by using stochastic methods. Probability density functions, number of iterations are important statistical concepts. Increasing number of iterations leads to a normal distribution of histogram.

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) pericarditis is a relatively rare form of tuberculosis which has been on the decline. However, the advent of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic has brought about the resurgence of tuberculosis pericarditis and an even poorer prognosis for patients with HIV co-infection. Objectives: The aim is to describe the baseline characteristics of tuberculous pericarditis patients and to assess the impact of HIV on the clinical presentation of this disease. Methods: The study describes baseline data from a randomised clinical trial which explored the use of adjunctive corticosteroids in management of TB pericarditis then went on to compare HIV co-infected patients versus those without HIV co-infection using logistic regression. Results: There were 1394 patients enrolled into the study, 64% were HIV positive, 19% were HIV negative and 17% had an unknown HIV status. Forty four percent of the participants were female and age had a positively skewed distribution with median 36 years (IQR: of 29-46). HIV co-infected patients were younger with OR 0.97(95% CI: 0.96-0.98), more likely to have previously had TB with OR 2.15(95% CI: 1.25-3.72), had a more acute illness with OR 0.99(95% CI: 0.99-1.00), had lower hemoglobin with OR 0.72(95% CI: 0.67-0.78), lower White Cell Count, (WCC) with OR 0.90(95% CI: 0.86-0.96) and higher globulin with OR 1.07(95% CI: 1.05-1.09). Conclusion: HIV co-infected participants are younger, more likely to have been previously diagnosed with TB, have a more acute illness, lower haemoglobin, lower WCC and higher globulin. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / unrestricted

Deformation and annealing texture in the cold rolled low carbon steels is important for sheet metal forming operations and service performance. The aim of this study is to non-destructively investigate the effect of texture on magnetic anisotropy. Various samples having different textures and residual stress states, due to different % reduction in thickness, annealing and stress relieving treatment, were prepared. Texture maps were obtained by Magnetic Barkhausen noise measurements performed with 100 steps between the ranges of 00-3600 on the surface. Microstructure investigation by optical &amp / scanning electron microscopy / hardness and tension tests were performed / and texture was determined by X-Ray diffraction method. The results were compared, evaluated and discussed to establish relationship between texture and magnetic Barkhausen Noise emission.

Reasons like increases in the price and demand of energy in the last years, growing interest and support in the renewable energy resources, development of social environmental consciousness, interest in using domestic resources, having legal regulations has promoted the interest in the electricity production from geothermal energy. For the effective and productive use of existing resources, important data of geothermal regions are obtained with well tests. Well tests are the studies which starts while the well is drilling, continues after the well completion during the process of operation planning with optimum performance suitable to geothermal source and presents continuation also in the operation stage as required for the dynamic structure of geothermal systems. In Aydin Kuyucak Pamuk&ouml / ren region three wells are drilled, achieved results are positive. At AP1 well only CO2 emission is present, no test is done for this well. With the tests for AP2 and AP3 wells temperature, pressure and production values are determined. By the results of these tests, it is determined that this region will be one of the important fields in the West Anatolian Region with current temperature and production rate. In this study, the geothermal energy recoverable from this region is calculated with volume method of geothermal resource assessment. Monte Carlo simulation technique is used with an add-in software program @RISK to Microsoft EXCEL. Electrical power capacity of Aydin-Pamuk&ouml / ren geothermal field is determined as 45.2 MW with 90 % probability. The most likely electrical power value was found to be 78.75 MW with a probability of 69 %. The number of wells required are 10 for a production capacity of 200 t/hr and 7 for a production capacity of 300 t/hr at each well head.

Οι εξαγορές και οι συγχωνεύσεις είναι ένας γρήγορος και με σχετικά χαμηλό κόστος τρόπος ανάπτυξης μιας εταιρείας. Επιλέγεται κυρίως από εταιρείες που επιθυμούν να αναπτύξουν νέ α προϊόντα ή θέλουν να διεισδύσουν σε νέες αγορές. Στόχος της εταιρείας που θα προβεί σε μια τέτοια ενέργεια είναι η αύξηση του μεριδίου αγοράς καθώς και η δημιουργία υψηλών οικονομιών κλίμακας. Σύμφωνα με μια έρευνα της εταιρείας Mckinsey & Company ο κλάδος ο οποίος θα συμβάλλει περισσότερο στην ανάπτυξη της χώρας σε βάθος μιας δεκαετίας είναι ο τουριστικός κλάδος. Επομένως, αυτός είναι και ο πιο ελκυστικός κλάδος για εξαγορές και συγχωνεύσεις στη χώρα μας. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εκπονείται με απώτερο σκοπό την ανάπτυξη ενός μοντέλου πρόβλεψης συγχωνεύσεων για ξενοδοχειακές επιχειρήσεις. Μέσα από το μοντέλο θα γίνει κατανοητός ο βαθμός στον οποίον κάποια κριτήρια επηρεάζουν τη διοίκηση για επιλογή της κατάλληλης εταιρείας για εξαγορά / συγχώνευση. Τα κριτήρια που μελετώνται είναι τα εξής : 1) ρευστότητα, 2) μόχλευση, 3) ρυθμός ανάπτυξης, 4) αποτελεσματικότητα διοίκησης, 5) απόσταση από λιμάνι, 6) απόσταση από αεροδρόμιο, 7) απόσταση από παραλία, 8) αριθμός αστέρων και 9) αριθμός δωματίων. Αναλυτικότερα, η εργασία διακρίνεται σε πέντε κεφάλαια. Το πρώτο κεφάλ αιο εξετάζει τις εξαγορές και συγχωνεύσεις σε θεωρητικό επίπεδο. Συγκεκριμένα αναλύονται α) οι έννοιες εξαγορά και συγχώνευση, β) οι τύποι με τους οποίους εμφανίζονται, γ) οι λόγοι πραγματοποίησης τους, δ) οι λόγοι που μια τέτοια επένδυση μπορεί να μην είναι επιτυχημένη, ε) η διαδικασία εξαγοράς και συγχώνευσης και στ) το θεσμικό πλαίσιο στο οποίο στηρίζονται. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται κάποια στατιστικά στοιχεία σχετικά με τον κλάδο του τουρισμού τόσο σε εγχώριο όσο και σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο καθώς και η έρευνα της εταιρείας Mckinsey & Company σύμφωνα με την οποία ο κλάδος με την περισσότερη ανάπτυξη σε βάθος μιας δεκαετίας είναι ο τουριστικός. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο παραθέτονται όλες οι μεθοδολογίες ταξινόμησης και γίνεται αναφορά στις αντίστοιχες έρευνες του παρελθόντος Το τέταρτο κεφάλαιο περιλαμβάνει την εμπειρική ανάλυση. Συγκεκριμένα, παρουσιάζεται εκτενέστερα η μεθοδολογία UTADIS, η οποία εφαρμόζεται στην παρούσα 5 εργασία καθώς και η ακριβής διαδικασία. Εν συνεχεία, αναλύονται τα κριτήρια και ο τρόπος συλλογής των δεδομένων και ακολουθεί μια παρουσίαση του δείγματος με τη βοήθεια της περιγραφικής στατιστικής. Επιπλέον, αναφέρονται τα αποτελέσματα που προκύπτουν από την ανάλυση του μοντέλου που αναπτύχθηκε στα πλ αίσια της παρούσας διπλωματικής και στο τέλος του κεφαλαίου γίνεται σύγκριση των αποτελεσμάτων αυτής της έρευνας σε σχέση με τα αποτελέσματα άλλων ερευνών. Στο πέμπτο και τελευταίο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται τα γενικά συμπεράσματα της παρούσας εργασίας και προτάσεις για περαιτέρω μελέτη. / Mergers and acquisitions are meant to be a quick and with relatively low cost way so as for a company to get developed. They are chosen mainly by companies which try to develop new products or to merge to new markets. The main reason why α company acts in this way is to increase market’s share and to create high economies of scale. According to a survey of Mckinsey & Company, the economic sector which will contribute the most to the development of the country in depth of a decade is tourism. Thus, tourism is the most attractive sector for mergers and acquisitions in our country. The goal of this master thesis is to develop a classification model for hotel industry. Through this model, it will be understandable which criteria affect the administration of a company in order to choose the appropriate company for merger or acquisition. The criteria which are included in this model are: 1) liquidity, 2) leverage, 3) growth rate, 4) management’s efficiency, 5) distance from the closest port, 6) distance from the closest airport, 7) distance from the closest beach, 8) number of stars and 9) number of rooms. To be more specific, this thesis consists of 5 chapters. The first one analyzes the mergers and acquisitions in a theoretical basis. Particularly, it is referred a) the definitions of terms “merger” and “acquisition”, b) the different types of them, c) the reasons why companies result in these actions, d) the reasons why mergers and acquisitions are not always successful, e) all the steps of these procedures and f) regulatory framework on which they are based. In the second chapter, statistics about tourism not only in national but also in international level are presented. It is also mentioned the survey of Mckinsey & Company which concludes that tourism is the sector which contributes the most to the development of our country in a decade. In the third chapter, all the classification techniques are elaborated as well as all the relative surveys from the past. The fourth chapter includes the empirical analysis. The methodology UTADIS is described in detail because it’s the methodology of the model. Furthermore, the criteria and the way of collecting data are analyzed. The sample is also presented through descriptive statistics. At the end of this chapter, the results that are derived from the analysis of the model are referred and are compared to the results of other surveys. In the last but not least chapter the conclusions from the thesis and suggestions for further studies are mentioned.

This study investigates six theoretical approaches offered as solutions to the paradox of the heap (sorites paradox), a logic puzzle dating back to the ancient Greek philosopher Eubulides. Those considered are: Incoherence Theory, Epistemic Theory, Supervaluation Theory, Many-Valued Logic, Fuzzy Logic, and Non-Classical Semantics. After critically examining all of these, it is concluded that none of the attempts to explain the sorites are fully adequate, and the paradox remains unresolved. / Philosophy / M.A. (Philosophy)