Both Hilary Bok, in “Freedom and Practical Reason,” and Robert Kane, in “Responsibility, Luck, and Chance: Reflections on Free Will and Indeterminism,” make at least implicit use of process-based accounts of deliberation to establish their positions. But Bok is a compatibilist while Kane is a libertarian—the usefulness of the notion of process to opposing sides of the contemporary free will debate suggests that it might be this notion that is doing the work for Bok and Kane rather than elements specific to their separate doctrines. At the very least it suggests that an exploration of process will offer a better understanding of the interplay between compatibilism and libertarianism in the free will debate. In this thesis, I discuss the process-based accounts of John Dewey and A. N. Whitehead—primarily from Dewey’s Human Nature and Conduct and Whitehead’s Process and Reality—in an effort to bring out features of such accounts that are relevant to the issues of free will and human action. Following focused discussions of Dewey and Whitehead I explore how their specific accounts bear upon the positions of Bok and Kane in their aforementioned articles, and conclude that Dewey and Whitehead would reject both the compatibilist and libertarian positions, taking up something of a middle ground between the two views. I then end the thesis by exploring how a more general process account of human action bears upon Bok and Kane, concluding that it is possible to reconcile their views with such a general account with only some reinterpretation and restriction of their positions. In general, I conclude that process-based accounts of human action favour neither compatibilist nor libertarian positions, but rather a mixture or middle ground between the two. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-18 12:30:30.758

No description available.

Roughly speaking, a group G is omnipotent if orders of finitely many elements can be controlled independently in some finite quotients of G. We proved that pi1(S) is omnipotent when S is a surface other than P2,T2 or K2 . This generalizes the fact, previously known, that free groups are omnipotent. The proofs primarily utilize geometric techniques involving graphs of spaces with the aim of retracting certain spaces onto graphs. / Approximativement, on peut dire qu'un groupe G est omnipotent si les ordresquantité d'élements d'une quantite finie d'elements peuvent etre controles independamment dans unquotient fini de Nous avons prouve que 7Ti(5) est omnipotent quand S estune surface autre que P2, T2 ou K2. Cela generalise le fait, deja connu, que lesgroupes libres sont omnipotents. La preuve utilise principalement des techniquesgeometriques impliquant des graphiques d'espaces ayant pour but de retractercertains espaces en graphiques.

We prove that any finitely generated group which splits as a graph of free groups with cyclic edge groups is hyperbolic relative to certain finitely generated subgroups, known as the peripheral subgroups. Each peripheral subgroup splits as a graph of cyclic groups. Any graph of free groups with cyclic edge groups is the fundamental group of a graph of spaces X where vertex spaces are graphs, edge spaces are cylinders and attaching maps are immersions. We approach our theorem geometrically using this graph of spaces. / We apply a "coning-off" process to peripheral subgroups of the universal cover X̃ → X obtaining a space Cone(X̃) in order to prove that Cone (X̃) has a linear isoperimetric function and hence satisfies weak relative hyperbolicity with respect to peripheral subgroups. / We then use a recent characterisation of relative hyperbolicity presented by D.V. Osin to serve as a bridge between our linear isoperimetric function for Cone(X̃) and a complete proof of relative hyperbolicity. This characterisation allows us to utilise geometric properties of X in order to show that pi1( X) has a linear relative isoperimetric function. This property is known to be equivalent to relative hyperbolicity. / Keywords. Relative hyperbolicity; Graphs of free groups with cyclic edge groups, Relative isoperimetric function, Weak relative hyperbolicity.

No description available.

This experimental program was designed to provide increasing evidence that second generation steel-free concrete bridge decks are a practical alternative to conventional steel reinforced concrete bridge decks. The bridge deck in this experiment was cast monolithically with one half consisting of a second generation steel-free concrete bridge deck and the second half a conventional steel reinforced concrete bridge deck. A constant cyclic load was applied to each segment at an identical magnitude to compare the two bridge decks in terms of endurance, durability, deflection, crack width, reinforcement strain, concrete strain, and overall performance. The test results obtained in this experimental program confirm the notion that second generation steel-free concrete bridge decks are a safe and reliable alternative to conventional steel reinforced concrete bridge decks, and furthermore should become more widely accepted and practiced in the field of bridge engineering. The mode of failure for both segments was punching shear failure.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.