Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): William B. Coulson, Robert L. Armstead. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-72). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

published_or_final_version / Dental Surgery / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

published_or_final_version / Dental Surgery / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

Consider this scenario: A terrorist just bombed the subway in London, which resulted in the casualties of numerous innocent people. His act can be considered well-planned for he fully knew what consequences his act would bring. If determinism is true, is it possible that the terrorist in question bombed the subway out of free will? An incompatibilist would respond to this question with a resounding “no”. A compatibilist, on the other hand, would answer yes, as long as the terrorist possessed certain psychological characteristics, causal histories, etc. This underlies the basis of disputes between the compatibilists and incompatibilists, who appear to hold opposite views on whether it is possible for someone to act out of free will if determinism is true. However, as I shall discuss in Chapter One, this disagreement is partly a verbal one that stems from the diverse meanings of the term “free will”. This thesis aims to transcend the verbal disagreement and explore where the deeper, more substantial disagreements may lie between compatibilists and incompatibilists. One possible sphere where substantial disagreements between compatibilists and incompatibilists may lie is the content of the ordinary concept of free will, or that of the strongest sense of control condition necessary for securing the ordinary concept of moral responsibility. On this view, the metaphysical question and the conceptual question about free will are inseparable; in order to find out the metaphysical satisfaction conditions of free will, one must first identify the conceptual satisfaction conditions of free will. Further, the latter is reflected in everyday free will/ moral responsibility ascriptions about hypothetical or real scenarios. In Chapter Two, I analyze how the recent experimental philosophy movement bears on this issue. By examining the findings of some current experimental philosophy studies, I argue that neither compatibilism nor incompatibilism can sufficiently capture the ordinary concept of free will or moral responsibility. In the light of my discussions in Chapter Two, I explain in Chapter Three why each of the various traditional accounts of free will (including compatibilism, libertarianism and hard incompatibilism) cannot independently provide an adequate “package deal” of solutions for the problem of free will. Near the end of the chapter, I propose a pluralistic, agnostic account of free will as an alternative solution. Despite its great instrumental value, experimental philosophy is not widely recognized as a philosophically significant methodology. Hence, Chapter Four is devoted to discussing the actual and potential values of experimental philosophy in the light of its contribution to the free will debate. I conclude that the encounter between the free will debate and the experimental philosophy movement is a fruitful one; the former proves the value of the latter by receiving helpful insights from it. / published_or_final_version / Philosophy / Master / Master of Philosophy

In recent years the number of Free Trade Zones (FTZs) or Export Processing Zones (EPZs) has rapidly grown. Close to fifty countries have now established EPZs to stimulate and diversify their industrial growth. The efectiveness and performance of EPZs is an important topic of interest and concern for political decision-makers and donor agencies. The thesis lays out a theoretical and empirical framework for evaluating such zones, incorporating investigation of the Qesh Free Area(QFA), in the Persian Gulf, whose activities, employment and trading relations were studied to make a full evaluation of its performance. Through interviews with Iranian political and economic leaders and careful interpretation and analysis of pertinent documents, significant achievements and trends in Iran are reviewed. It is concluded that political, economic and social conditions are of greater relevance in attracting investors than the content of specific package of incentives offered to foreign industries and investors.

Το θέμα της διδακτορικής διατριβής αφορά στην ανάπτυξη προτύπων μηχανικής και πεπερασμένων στοιχείων για τον υπολογισμό της δυναμικής απόσβεσης σε πολύστρωτες κατασκευές από σύνθετα υλικά, εύκαμπτες στρώσεις και πιεζοηλεκτρικά στοιχεία. Ο όρος «εύκαμπτες» προσδιορίζει υλικά με χαμηλό μέτρο ελαστικότητας σε σχέση με τα μεταλλικά και τα σύνθετα υλικά, όπως ιξωδοελαστικά προσθέματα και αφρώδη υλικά. Αναπτύσσεται κώδικας πεπερασμένων στοιχείων για την πρόβλεψη δυναμικής απόσβεσης και γίνονται συγκρίσεις με μετρήσεις της. Η δυναμική απόσβεση μελετάται σε: 1. Λεπτές δοκούς, πλάκες, ανοιχτά και κλειστά λεπτότοιχα κελύφη (Κεφ. 3). 2. Λεπτές δοκούς και πλάκες με πιεζοηλεκτρικά στοιχεία συνδεδεμένα με ηλεκτρικές αντιστάσεις (Κεφ. 4). 3. Δοκούς μεγάλου πάχους με εύκαμπτες στρώσεις (Κεφ. 5). 4. Δοκούς μεγάλου πάχους με εύκαμπτες στρώσεις και πιεζοηλεκτρικά στοιχεία (Κεφ. 6). 5. Πλάκες μεγάλου πάχους (Κεφ. 7). Τα πεπερασμένα στοιχεία που αναπτύσσονται έχουν επιπλέον τών μητρώων μάζας και δυσκαμψίας, μητρώο απόσβεσης, το οποίο περιέχει πληροφορία από τα επίπεδα του σύνθετου υλικού και της πολύστρωτης δομής, ενώ οι συντελεστές απόσβεσης στρώσης σύνθετου υλικού προσδιορίζονται μέσω πειραμάτων μορφικής ανάλυσης. Tα πεπερασμένα στοιχεία που αναπτύσσονται στα Κεφάλαια 5, 6 και 7 βασίζονται σε πρωτότυπες ανώτερης τάξης θεωρίες διακριτών στρώσεων και μπορούν να προβλέψουν με ακρίβεια τη στατική και δυναμική απόκριση σύνθετων πολύστρωτων κατασκευών μεγάλου πάχους και έντονης δομικής ανομοιογένειας, ιδιαίτερα τις κατά το πάχος κατανομές των εκτός επιπέδου παραμορφώσεων και τάσεων, με ελάχιστο αριθμό διακριτών στρώσεων και κομβικών βαθμών ελευθερίας. Επιπλέον, προβλέπουν εκτός επιπέδου διατμητικές τάσεις στη διεπιφάνεια μεταξύ διακριτών στρώσεων. Μελετάται η επίδραση δομικών παραμέτρων στη δυναμική απόσβεση της κατασκευής. Οι βασικότερες παράμετροι που εξετάζονται είναι η γωνία στρώσης, η διαδοχή της δομής, το πάχος της κατασκευής, η καμπυλότητα σε κελύφη και το πάχος του δομικού αφρού σε δοκούς τύπου sandwich. Μελετάται επίσης η αλληλεπίδραση των δύο μηχανισμών απόσβεσης που συνυπάρχουν σε σύνθετες κατασκευές με πιεζοηλεκτρικά στοιχεία συνδεδεμένα με ηλεκτρικές αντιστάσεις. Η παρεμβολή εύκαμπτων στρώσεων στη δομή αυξάνει τη μορφική απόσβεση χωρίς να επηρεάζει ιδιαίτερα τις φυσικές συχνότητες, ενώ τα πιεζοηλεκτρικά στοιχεία μπορούν να την αυξήσουν περαιτέρω, είτε με παθητικό τρόπο, συνδεόμενα με ηλεκτρικές αντιστάσεις, είτε με ενεργητικό τρόπο, ενισχύοντας την εκτός επιπέδου διάτμηση. / Integrated mechanics and a finite element method are developed for predicting the viscoelastic damped free-vibration response of laminated composite structures with interlaminar compliant layers and piezoelectric components. The theoretical framework is incorporated into a finite element computer code, which predicts the damping of a range of composite structures, such as: 1. Thin beams, plates, doubly curved open and closed shallow shells (Chapter 3). 2. Thin multi-damped beams and plates with shunted piezoelectric layers (Chapter 4). 3. Thick composite beams with interlaminar damping layers and thick sandwich beams (Chapter 5). 4. Thick composite and sandwich beams with piezoelectric layers (Chapter 6). 5. Thick composite plates (Chapter 7). The models developed include damping from ply to structural level and are experimentally validated. The finite elements have a damping matrix, in addition to stiffness and mass matrices, hence the damped dynamic structural response can be predicted by determining the composite ply damping coefficients by means of modal testing experiments. In Chapters 5, 6 and 7, a novel high-order layerwise theory developed enables effective modeling of interlaminar shear effects on the damping of thick piezoelectric composite structures strongly anisotropic through-thickness. The high-order finite element method yields robust predictions of the local through-thickness response, including electric potential and shear stresses that appear to exhibit complex parabolic profiles, using a minimum number of discrete layers and nodal degrees of freedom. Moreover, it enables prediction of interlaminar shear stresses at ply interfaces and, most importantly, at the actuator interfaces where shear stresses were found to reach steep peak values. Thus, the present theory appears capable of providing valuable shear stress results for estimating the initiation of delamination cracks, which were not previously available by linear layerwise theories. The effect of ply orientation, lamination, thickness and curvature (in the case of the shells) on modal damping is studied. In hybrid multi-damped composite beams and plates the developed mechanics encompass both damping contributions of the viscoelastic composite plies and the resistively shunted piezoelectric layers and their beneficial interaction in producing a more uniform overall damping capacity.

Free radical polymerization is the most common polymerization technique that is used for the manufacturing of polymers, due to the ease of the polymerization initiation, wide latitude of the material design for a large variety of monomers, and the excellent process robustness for commercial production. In the 1990’s, research activities for the precise control of radical polymerization process resulted in the discovery of ‘Living Radical Polymerization’. The discoveries opened the door for the next generation of radical polymerizations. Extensive research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms and kinetics for numerous practical applications, particularly for polymerization in bulk and solution systems. However, despite the interest of industry, the mechanistic understanding in aqueous dispersed systems such as emulsion and miniemulsion polymerization is far behind the aforementioned two systems. There are still major challenges from the production viewpoint. One reason for the poor understanding is the complexity of the heterogeneous system, which includes multiple　reaction phases that are accompanied by the segregation and transfer of the reaction species among different phases. The purpose of this research was to investigate living radical polymerization or “Stable Free Radical Polymerization” (SFRP) in aqueous dispersed systems to obtain better mechanistic understanding of how the heterogeneous nature of the system interacts with the novel living radical chemistry. The theoretical and experimental feasibility of the SFRP emulsion process were studied in this research, in particular, focusing on the compartmentalization effect. Particle size influence on the polymerization kinetics and the polymer livingness was experimentally confirmed, and compared to bulk polymerization. In addition, a comprehensive mathematical model including all major chemical and physical events was developed to further our mechanistic understanding. Based on the results from the experimental and modeling studies, it was shown that rate reduction in the smaller particles is the primary cause of difficulty in implementing a conventional emulsion process (i.e. ab initio emulsion polymerization). Finally, for overcoming this difficulty, a new approach using a combination of TEMPO with highly hydrophobic 4-stearoyl TEMPO was proposed for a coagulum free ab initio emulsion process. / Thesis (Ph.D, Chemical Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-02-18 09:49:52.336

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Under what conditions did conservative governments of the major industrial countries commit themselves to building domestic institutional frameworks for embedded liberalism as an international economic subsystem? As a way of answering the question, this study looks into informal and formal institutional arrangements for domestic compromise among classes and sectors. During the 1950s, governments in the United States, Britain, France, and West Germany sought to accommodate working-class demands and achieve a stable domestic economy within the institutional limits set by the prior experiences dating back to the interwar years. At the informal level, organized labor and business community in each country interacted with each other to produce varying forms of labor-management conflict resolution mechanism. At the formal level, political parties became more centrist in the domestic economic policy areas in order to maximize votes in an era of catch-all party politics. National outcomes varied from the semi-privatized welfare state in the United States to the liberal Keynesian welfare state in Britain to the dirigiste interventionist state in France to the social market economy in West Germany. Although those nationally distinct institutional arrangements reduced international policy coordination, embedded liberalism could work as long as participating countries shared the social purpose that domestic stability and international liberalization should not be incompatible.