The doctoral thesis deals with reliability (dependability) analyses of operation and testing data of the Airplanes. Requirements of airworthiness regulations on aircraft hydraulic systems (with a focus on US FAR-23 and European CS-23 regulations) are taken into account. Mentioned regulations include requirements for the structural design, design of systems, etc. They cover wide range of airplanes from small sport airplanes to 19-seats transport aircraft. Also options for predictive reliability analyses (resources) and reliability tests are discussed in the doctoral thesis. Practical application is done on small transport airplane (currently in the development). The failure report is designed. Expected major contribution of the work is selection and practical application of the most suitable procedures for safety assessment on the field of aircraft hydraulic systems, with a focus on the small transport aircraft. Also the comparison to different data source is shown.

The regional economic community (REC) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) compri'ses 15 Southern African countries. The' economic and political aspects of regional integration in SADC dictate the pace of integration while the influence of a legal regime for regional integration remains at the periphery. While the SADC Treaty and its Protocol on Trade are clear about the priority of economic integration; the full implementation of SADC's economic integration is still yet to be realised using these legal instruments. Regional economic integration is also a priority at both continental and global level. The legal instruments applicable at these levels are those established through the African Union (AU) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) respectively. Analysis of these external legal instruments is relevant because SADC Member States are signatories to agreements establishing these organisations·. Thus, rules based trade in SADC should be understood from a regional, continental and global perspective where a community must have well-structured and managed relations between itself and other legal systems as a necessary condition for its effectiveness. These structured relations refers to a legal and institutional framework that defines the relations between community and national laws, spelling out the modalities for implementing community law in Member States, defines the respective competencies of the community and Member States and provide rule based systems for resolution of conflicts. In setting the scene for an in-depth discussion of the legal and institutional framework for regional economic integration in SADC, this study presents the history of SADC, its political and economic characteristics that have shaped the legal aspects of trade within the region, the continent of Africa and the world at large. Within this context, the definition of regional integration is presented from a general and international understanding but ultimately gets narrowed down to what it means for Africa and SADC. The discussion on the · theories behind regional economic integration gives understanding to the integration approach employed in the organisation. South Africa's economic and political leadership is critical in the realisation of economic integration; hence this study acknowledges that without South Africa's full commitment; regional economic integration will suffer .a setback. Besides the challenge of implementing rules based trade in SADC, this study also identifies a number of obstacles to SADC regional economic integration and multiple memberships are identified as a: major stumbling block. A comparative study of SADC's institutional framework with that of the E1;Jropean Union· (EU) is undertaken to establish the rationale behind SADC's choice of utilising the EU model of integration. This study establishes the critical role institutions play in the implementation of treaty obligations as established by the agreements. The main lesson from this comparative study is that the EU institutions are allowed to fulfill their obligations of implementing treaty provisions, while SADC institutions are handicapped. The future of SADC is presented within the context of a set of recommendations that identifies the tripartite free trade area (FTA) that includes the East Africa Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as one of viable legal instrument for deeper integration in SADC and the continent of Africa. General recommendations are made on the need for reform of rules and principles that are necessary for the implementation of SADC Treaty regime as well as possible improvements that are important for the full realisation of regional economic integration. / PhD (Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

The regional economic community (REC) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) compri'ses 15 Southern African countries. The' economic and political aspects of regional integration in SADC dictate the pace of integration while the influence of a legal regime for regional integration remains at the periphery. While the SADC Treaty and its Protocol on Trade are clear about the priority of economic integration; the full implementation of SADC's economic integration is still yet to be realised using these legal instruments. Regional economic integration is also a priority at both continental and global level. The legal instruments applicable at these levels are those established through the African Union (AU) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) respectively. Analysis of these external legal instruments is relevant because SADC Member States are signatories to agreements establishing these organisations·. Thus, rules based trade in SADC should be understood from a regional, continental and global perspective where a community must have well-structured and managed relations between itself and other legal systems as a necessary condition for its effectiveness. These structured relations refers to a legal and institutional framework that defines the relations between community and national laws, spelling out the modalities for implementing community law in Member States, defines the respective competencies of the community and Member States and provide rule based systems for resolution of conflicts. In setting the scene for an in-depth discussion of the legal and institutional framework for regional economic integration in SADC, this study presents the history of SADC, its political and economic characteristics that have shaped the legal aspects of trade within the region, the continent of Africa and the world at large. Within this context, the definition of regional integration is presented from a general and international understanding but ultimately gets narrowed down to what it means for Africa and SADC. The discussion on the · theories behind regional economic integration gives understanding to the integration approach employed in the organisation. South Africa's economic and political leadership is critical in the realisation of economic integration; hence this study acknowledges that without South Africa's full commitment; regional economic integration will suffer .a setback. Besides the challenge of implementing rules based trade in SADC, this study also identifies a number of obstacles to SADC regional economic integration and multiple memberships are identified as a: major stumbling block. A comparative study of SADC's institutional framework with that of the E1;Jropean Union· (EU) is undertaken to establish the rationale behind SADC's choice of utilising the EU model of integration. This study establishes the critical role institutions play in the implementation of treaty obligations as established by the agreements. The main lesson from this comparative study is that the EU institutions are allowed to fulfill their obligations of implementing treaty provisions, while SADC institutions are handicapped. The future of SADC is presented within the context of a set of recommendations that identifies the tripartite free trade area (FTA) that includes the East Africa Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as one of viable legal instrument for deeper integration in SADC and the continent of Africa. General recommendations are made on the need for reform of rules and principles that are necessary for the implementation of SADC Treaty regime as well as possible improvements that are important for the full realisation of regional economic integration. / PhD (Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Ce travail de thèse s’inscrit dans une perspective comparative et interculturelle. Sa mise en œuvre repose sur l’idée que c’est en observant ce qui se passe dans les interactions du quotidien que l’on peut mieux comprendre le rapport que les cultures entretiennent, et mettre au jour ce que les comportements observés dans chacune des cultures étudiées ont de spécifique. En s’appuyant sur l’analyse minutieuse et détaillée d’enregistrements effectués dans quatre sites commerciaux français et britanniques, l’étude tente de comprendre le comportement langagier des participants en le mettant en relation avec divers éléments du contexte (éléments relevant du micro-contexte : matériel discursif contigu aux énoncés étudiés ; du contexte situationnel : agencement du site, nombre de participants, finalité de l’interaction ; du macro-contexte : place occupée par les interactions de commerce dans les cultures en question, par les sites, valeurs culturelles d’arrière-plan). La finalité de cette étude (qui aborde les rituels d’entrée et de sortie d’interaction ; les remerciements ; la réalisation d’actes de langage directifs : questions, requêtes, offres ; les séquences conversationnelles) est d’obtenir une meilleure compréhension des profils communicatifs relatifs aux cultures française et britannique. / This thesis, which is of a contrastive and intercultural nature, is informed by the idea that it is by observing the behaviour of interactants in everyday interactions that the relationship between cultures can best be approached, and the specificity of the forms of behaviour encountered explored. Through the careful and detailed analysis of recordings taken in four different shops (French and British), the study aims to understand the linguistic behaviour of the participants by linking it to various contextual elements (micro-contextual elements: discursive material that surrounds the utterances analysed; situational elements: site layout, number of participants, interaction’s finality; macro-contextual ones: status of service encounters and of the types of shops selected, cultural values that underpin explored behaviour). The purpose of the study (which analyses opening and closing rituals; thanking; the way directive speech acts such as questions, offers and requests are performed; conversational sequences) is to provide a better understanding of the communicative styles that can be associated with French and British cultures.

本文所研究之主要問題為美國於東亞地區的經濟合作上是否還具有決定性或主導性之地位。研究重心為美國對東亞經貿政策之效能及其與東亞國家之經貿互動關係，並且以亞太經濟合作會議(APEC)、東協加三、美國與東亞國家之雙邊自由貿易協定(FTA)為主要研究標的。本文將先由理論切入，釐清霸權穩定理論之相關概念與內涵，提供觀察美國對東亞經濟合作政策之基本視角。次則觀察美國歷年對於APEC政策之微妙變化，亦探討東協加三合作機制之前景與對APEC之影響。再次則討論美國對東亞各國之FTA政策。研究後發現，霸權國家欲穩定其霸權體系除霸權國家本身實力至為關鍵外，霸權國家提供公共財之意願和與中型強權之互動亦為體系穩定之重要因素。然而美國無意強化APEC，甚間接導致其地位弱化；加上美國對東亞國家FTA政策過於僵化，執意堅持多項原則，導致簽署進度落後。本文認為，雖然目前美國於東亞地區仍具一定影響力，與地區中各國之聯繫也相當密切；但若美國無法將其經濟合作政策改弦易轍，以積極的態度與東亞地區中型強權進行互動，構建該地區之經濟合作制度、建制或機制，則其影響力勢將於未來進一步弱化。

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-07-06T22:46:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 05a.pdf: 1198781 bytes, checksum: 34fe37cef5d4231f47ceaee0ab29d016 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-06T22:46:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 05a.pdf: 1198781 bytes, checksum: 34fe37cef5d4231f47ceaee0ab29d016 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-04 / FORD - Programa Internacional de Bolsas de Pós-Graduação da Fundação Ford / A dissertação identifica as estruturas regulatórias da televisão de sinal aberto – com transmissão por ondas hertzianas, de recepção livre – nos países de língua oficial portuguesa: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe, Timor-Leste. Em seguida, analisa as atribuições das agências regulatórias da televisão, conforme a legislação vigente em cada país no período entre 1o de janeiro de 2011 e 31 de dezembro de 2012, e a forma como as mesmas estão organizadas. A pesquisa então compara a autonomia administrativa e financeira das autoridades regulatórias em relação aos poderes políticos em que se organiza o Estado e a capacidade delas em deliberar e impor sanções, tendo por base a análise das normas legais. A investigação proposta está alinhada à perspectiva da Economia Política da Comunicação, em diálogo com referenciais teóricos próximos. Deste modo, a pesquisa identifica cinco agências com atribuições legais de monitoramento sobre o conteúdo transmitido pelas emissoras de televisão: Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (Portugal); Conselho Superior da Comunicação Social (Moçambique); Conselho Nacional de Comunicação Social (Guiné-Bissau); Conselho Nacional de Comunicação Social (Angola); Conselho Superior de Imprensa (São Tomé e Príncipe). O trabalho demonstra que o modelo português de regulação das transmissões televisivas tem um alcance mais profundo que o dos demais países, tendo-se em vista que a atividade regulatória abarca todo o conteúdo transmitido – informação, entretenimento e publicidade – e que a entidade responsável por este monitoramento atua em conjunto com outras duas autoridades, uma delas dedicada ao controle da concentração de propriedade nos meios de comunicação e outra direcionada à fiscalização dos aspectos relacionados ao transporte do sinal. Também demonstra a existência de entidades regulatórias em Moçambique e Guiné-Bissau, cujas atribuições legais se dão especificamente sobre o conteúdo informativo, e que os conselhos de Angola e São Tomé e Príncipe têm alcance mais reduzido, limitando-se a advertir sobre infrações praticadas. Por fim, a dissertação constata que outros dois países, Cabo Verde e Timor-Leste, ainda não criaram entidades de monitoramento sobre o conteúdo da televisão, embora tal iniciativa já esteja prevista na legislação e/ou em documentos oficiais, e que o oitavo país investigado, o Brasil, é o único a não possuir sequer previsão de implementação do monitoramento sobre o conteúdo televisivo. / The dissertation identifies the regulatory structures of free-to-air (FTA) television – broadcast via radio waves, free reception – in Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, Timor East. It then analyzes the powers of the regulatory agencies of television, according to the legislation of each country in the period between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2012, and the way in which they are organized. The study then compares the financial and administrative autonomy of the regulatory authorities in relation to the political powers in which the state is organized and their ability to deliberate and impose sanctions, based on the analysis of legal norms. The proposed research is aligned with the perspective of Political Economy of Communication, in dialogue with approximate theoretical. Thus, the research identifies five agencies with legal duties to monitor the televised content: Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (Regulatory Authority for the Media – Portugal); Conselho Superior da Comunicação Social (Superior Council for Social Communication – Mozambique); Conselho Nacional de Comunicação Social (National Council for Social Communication – GuineaBissau); Conselho Nacional de Comunicação Social (National Council for Social Communication – Angola); Conselho Superior de Imprensa (Superior Council Press – Sao Tome and Principe). The work demonstrates that the Portuguese model of regulation of television has a range deeper than the other countries, bearing in mind that the regulatory activity refers to any content transmitted – information, entertainment and advertising – and that the entity responsible for this monitoring works in conjunction with two other agencies, a their dedicated to the control of the ownership concentration in the media and the other with targeted surveillance to aspects of the transport signal. It also demonstrates the existence of regulatory bodies in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, whose legal powers are given specifically on the informative content, and that the entities of Angola and Sao Tome and Principe have reduced range, merely warn about violations practiced. Finally, the dissertation finds that two other countries, Cape Verde and East Timor, have not yet created monitoring entities the content of television, although this initiative is already established in law and / or in official documents, and the eighth country investigated, Brazil, is the only one not to have even forecast implementation monitoring of the television content.

近年來雙邊甚或區域間簽訂自由貿易協定之風盛行，本文欲探討其影響。參考Caliendo and Parro(2015)的方法，以考慮部門異質性、投入產出連結以及中間財貿易之模型，計算1995-2013年間三個模型的福利效果。旨在分別檢視1995-2005年間WTO成立十年之影響、2005-2013年間全球120份自由貿易協定生效之效果，以及韓國此段期間內簽訂自由貿易協定之成果。本文結果顯示，WTO於1995年成立至其後10年間，確實為會員國帶來正面影響，總體而言，多數國家福利效果變動率為正。到了2005-2013年，全球有120份區域貿易協定生效，亦提升多數國家的福利，然成長幅度不如1995-2005來的顯著。惟韓國受惠於其簽訂自由貿易協定的成效，福利成長得與先前維持相近水準。此外，透過不同模型間的比較，本文發現各模型間的福利效果有明顯差異，顯示現今複雜的國際分工鏈下，完善考量部門間的互動因素實為衡量國際貿易效果的重要課題。

自由貿易有利有弊，一方面為國內經濟的出口優勢產業開拓新市場，另一方面伴隨著撤除各種貿易壁壘措施，將會使國內弱勢、內需產業遭到衝擊，無法避免國外進口不斷增加帶來的傷害。因此在自由貿易過程中，政府如何制訂對進口競爭引起衝擊的相關救濟問題與貿易調整協助措施，或是補償措施逐漸受到重視，例如美國自1962年開始採取的貿易援助法案(Trade Adjustment Assistance, TAA)，後改為貿易調整協助方案，旨在透過協助方式協助貿易自由化下容易受到衝擊的產業與勞工，而韓國也因簽訂美韓 FTA 而制定相似的救濟政策。 本文以韓美FTA作為個案討論，研究發現以韓國角度來看，韓美FTA簽訂快速的原因包含政府及人民的大多數支持、韓國政府對受衝擊產業制定各項因應措施等因素。而這些因應措施無論是在談判階段或是協議簽訂後，都不斷在修正與制定，以達到符合協助受衝擊產業之目的。 / Free trade is accompanied by advantages and disadvantages, it could expand new markets for the export advantageous industries; on the other hand, it could affect the disadvantageous minority industries while removing trade barriers.　Thus, it is important how the government sets up the countermeasures or the indemnify measures to ease the harm that foreign import products bring. For instance, the United States have adopted Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) since 1962, it is meant to assist industries and workers that are affected by free trade. South Korea has established similar countermeasures since KORUS FTA was concluded. This study is a case study of KORUS FTA . It shows that from South Korea’s perspective, it has support among government and people, Korean government has established countermeasures for the affected industries, and all these factors made KOURS FTA took less time to sign than South Korea’s most FTAs. These countermeasures were being amended during the negotiation process and after the FTA was concluded, in order to achieve the goal of assisting affected industries.

Os recentes avanços experimentados pela tecnologia CMOS tem permitido a fabricação de transistores em dimensões submicrônicas, possibilitando a integração de dezenas de milhões de dispositivos numa única pastilha de silício, os quais podem ser usados na implementação de sistemas eletrônicos muito complexos. Este grande aumento na complexidade dos projetos fez surgir uma demanda por ferramentas de verificação eficientes e sobretudo que incorporassem modelos físicos e computacionais mais adequados. A verificação de timing objetiva determinar se as restrições temporais impostas ao projeto podem ou não ser satisfeitas quando de sua fabricação. Ela pode ser levada a cabo por meio de simulação ou por análise de timing. Apesar da simulação oferecer estimativas mais precisas, ela apresenta a desvantagem de ser dependente de estímulos. Assim, para se assegurar que a situação crítica é considerada, é necessário simularem-se todas as possibilidades de padrões de entrada. Obviamente, isto não é factível para os projetos atuais, dada a alta complexidade que os mesmos apresentam. Para contornar este problema, os projetistas devem lançar mão da análise de timing. A análise de timing é uma abordagem independente de vetor de entrada que modela cada bloco combinacional do circuito como um grafo acíclico direto, o qual é utilizado para estimar o atraso do circuito. As primeiras ferramentas de análise de timing utilizavam apenas a topologia do circuito para estimar o atraso, sendo assim referenciadas como analisadores de timing topológicos. Entretanto, tal aproximação pode resultar em estimativas demasiadamente pessimistas, uma vez que os caminhos mais longos do grafo podem não ser capazes de propagar transições, i.e., podem ser falsos. A análise de timing funcional, por sua vez, considera não apenas a topologia do circuito, mas também as relações temporais e funcionais entre seus elementos. As ferramentas de análise de timing funcional podem diferir por três aspectos: o conjunto de condições necessárias para se declarar um caminho como sensibilizável (i.e., o chamado critério de sensibilização), o número de caminhos simultaneamente tratados e o método usado para determinar se as condições de sensibilização são solúveis ou não. Atualmente, as duas classes de soluções mais eficientes testam simultaneamente a sensibilização de conjuntos inteiros de caminhos: uma baseia-se em técnicas de geração automática de padrões de teste (ATPG) enquanto que a outra transforma o problema de análise de timing em um problema de solvabilidade (SAT). Apesar da análise de timing ter sido exaustivamente estudada nos últimos quinze anos, alguns tópicos específicos não têm recebido a devida atenção. Um tal tópico é a aplicabilidade dos algoritmos de análise de timing funcional para circuitos contendo portas complexas. Este constitui o objeto básico desta tese de doutorado. Além deste objetivo, e como condição sine qua non para o desenvolvimento do trabalho, é apresentado um estudo sistemático e detalhado sobre análise de timing funcional. / The recent advances in CMOS technology have allowed for the fabrication of transistors with submicronic dimensions, making possible the integration of tens of millions devices in a single chip that can be used to build very complex electronic systems. Such increase in complexity of designs has originated a need for more efficient verification tools that could incorporate more appropriate physical and computational models. Timing verification targets at determining whether the timing constraints imposed to the design may be satisfied or not. It can be performed by using circuit simulation or by timing analysis. Although simulation tends to furnish the most accurate estimates, it presents the drawback of being stimuli dependent. Hence, in order to ensure that the critical situation is taken into account, one must exercise all possible input patterns. Obviously, this is not possible to accomplish due to the high complexity of current designs. To circumvent this problem, designers must rely on timing analysis. Timing analysis is an input-independent verification approach that models each combinational block of a circuit as a direct acyclic graph, which is used to estimate the critical delay. First timing analysis tools used only the circuit topology information to estimate circuit delay, thus being referred to as topological timing analyzers. However, such method may result in too pessimistic delay estimates, since the longest paths in the graph may not be able to propagate a transition, that is, may be false. Functional timing analysis, in turn, considers not only circuit topology, but also the temporal and functional relations between circuit elements. Functional timing analysis tools may differ by three aspects: the set of sensitization conditions necessary to declare a path as sensitizable (i.e., the so-called path sensitization criterion), the number of paths simultaneously handled and the method used to determine whether sensitization conditions are satisfiable or not. Currently, the two most efficient approaches test the sensitizability of entire sets of paths at a time: one is based on automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) techniques and the other translates the timing analysis problem into a satisfiability (SAT) problem. Although timing analysis has been exhaustively studied in the last fifteen years, some specific topics have not received the required attention yet. One such topic is the applicability of functional timing analysis to circuits containing complex gates. This is the basic concern of this thesis. In addition, and as a necessary step to settle the scenario, a detailed and systematic study on functional timing analysis is also presented.

Os recentes avanços experimentados pela tecnologia CMOS tem permitido a fabricação de transistores em dimensões submicrônicas, possibilitando a integração de dezenas de milhões de dispositivos numa única pastilha de silício, os quais podem ser usados na implementação de sistemas eletrônicos muito complexos. Este grande aumento na complexidade dos projetos fez surgir uma demanda por ferramentas de verificação eficientes e sobretudo que incorporassem modelos físicos e computacionais mais adequados. A verificação de timing objetiva determinar se as restrições temporais impostas ao projeto podem ou não ser satisfeitas quando de sua fabricação. Ela pode ser levada a cabo por meio de simulação ou por análise de timing. Apesar da simulação oferecer estimativas mais precisas, ela apresenta a desvantagem de ser dependente de estímulos. Assim, para se assegurar que a situação crítica é considerada, é necessário simularem-se todas as possibilidades de padrões de entrada. Obviamente, isto não é factível para os projetos atuais, dada a alta complexidade que os mesmos apresentam. Para contornar este problema, os projetistas devem lançar mão da análise de timing. A análise de timing é uma abordagem independente de vetor de entrada que modela cada bloco combinacional do circuito como um grafo acíclico direto, o qual é utilizado para estimar o atraso do circuito. As primeiras ferramentas de análise de timing utilizavam apenas a topologia do circuito para estimar o atraso, sendo assim referenciadas como analisadores de timing topológicos. Entretanto, tal aproximação pode resultar em estimativas demasiadamente pessimistas, uma vez que os caminhos mais longos do grafo podem não ser capazes de propagar transições, i.e., podem ser falsos. A análise de timing funcional, por sua vez, considera não apenas a topologia do circuito, mas também as relações temporais e funcionais entre seus elementos. As ferramentas de análise de timing funcional podem diferir por três aspectos: o conjunto de condições necessárias para se declarar um caminho como sensibilizável (i.e., o chamado critério de sensibilização), o número de caminhos simultaneamente tratados e o método usado para determinar se as condições de sensibilização são solúveis ou não. Atualmente, as duas classes de soluções mais eficientes testam simultaneamente a sensibilização de conjuntos inteiros de caminhos: uma baseia-se em técnicas de geração automática de padrões de teste (ATPG) enquanto que a outra transforma o problema de análise de timing em um problema de solvabilidade (SAT). Apesar da análise de timing ter sido exaustivamente estudada nos últimos quinze anos, alguns tópicos específicos não têm recebido a devida atenção. Um tal tópico é a aplicabilidade dos algoritmos de análise de timing funcional para circuitos contendo portas complexas. Este constitui o objeto básico desta tese de doutorado. Além deste objetivo, e como condição sine qua non para o desenvolvimento do trabalho, é apresentado um estudo sistemático e detalhado sobre análise de timing funcional. / The recent advances in CMOS technology have allowed for the fabrication of transistors with submicronic dimensions, making possible the integration of tens of millions devices in a single chip that can be used to build very complex electronic systems. Such increase in complexity of designs has originated a need for more efficient verification tools that could incorporate more appropriate physical and computational models. Timing verification targets at determining whether the timing constraints imposed to the design may be satisfied or not. It can be performed by using circuit simulation or by timing analysis. Although simulation tends to furnish the most accurate estimates, it presents the drawback of being stimuli dependent. Hence, in order to ensure that the critical situation is taken into account, one must exercise all possible input patterns. Obviously, this is not possible to accomplish due to the high complexity of current designs. To circumvent this problem, designers must rely on timing analysis. Timing analysis is an input-independent verification approach that models each combinational block of a circuit as a direct acyclic graph, which is used to estimate the critical delay. First timing analysis tools used only the circuit topology information to estimate circuit delay, thus being referred to as topological timing analyzers. However, such method may result in too pessimistic delay estimates, since the longest paths in the graph may not be able to propagate a transition, that is, may be false. Functional timing analysis, in turn, considers not only circuit topology, but also the temporal and functional relations between circuit elements. Functional timing analysis tools may differ by three aspects: the set of sensitization conditions necessary to declare a path as sensitizable (i.e., the so-called path sensitization criterion), the number of paths simultaneously handled and the method used to determine whether sensitization conditions are satisfiable or not. Currently, the two most efficient approaches test the sensitizability of entire sets of paths at a time: one is based on automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) techniques and the other translates the timing analysis problem into a satisfiability (SAT) problem. Although timing analysis has been exhaustively studied in the last fifteen years, some specific topics have not received the required attention yet. One such topic is the applicability of functional timing analysis to circuits containing complex gates. This is the basic concern of this thesis. In addition, and as a necessary step to settle the scenario, a detailed and systematic study on functional timing analysis is also presented.