Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Regensburg, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. xiii-xxiv).

SRAM is a significant component in high speed computer design, which serves mainly as high speed storage elements like register files in microprocessors, or the interface like multiple-level caches between high speed processing elements and low speed peripherals. One method to design the SRAM is to use commercial memory compiler. Such compiler can generate different density/speed SRAM designs with single/dual/multiple ports to fulfill design purpose. There are discrepancy of the SRAM timing parameters between extracted layout netlist SPICE simulation vs. equation-based Liberty file (.lib) by a commercial memory compiler. This compiler takes spec values as its input and uses them as the starting points to generate the timing tables/matrices in the .lib. Originally large spec values are given to guarantee design correctness. While such spec values are usually too pessimistic when comparing with the results from extracted layout SPICE simulation, which serves as the “golden” rule. Besides, there is no margin information built-in such .lib generated by this compiler. A new methodology is proposed to get accurate spec values for the input of this compiler to generate more realistic matrices in .lib, which will benefit during the integration of the SRAM IP and timing analysis.

A key theoretical debate underlying the now defunct Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation known as the Fairness Doctrine is conflict over what constitutes the right to freedom of speech: a positive or negative conception. Similarly, since repeal of the Doctrine, other FCC measures to uphold the “public-interest” standard in broadcasting have relied on a positive conception of speech. This thesis demonstrates the history of this debate through court cases, news reports, scholarly articles and historical documents. It then is argued that the positive-right nature of these regulations is problematic philosophically, constitutionally and practically. The positive-right conception lends itself to an uncomfortable level of paternalism on the part of government regulators, a constitutional abridgement of negative-right speech and a tedious involvement of government in regulation that can lead to a chilling effect on speech. The conclusion then suggests further areas of research related to the topics covered in the thesis.

Är det möjligt att välja rätt embryo vid In-vitro fertilisering (IVF)? I sådana fall, vad innebär det att något är det rätta embryot? I denna uppsats diskuteras IVF och de moraliska dilemman som kan uppstå vid val av embryo. Vid IVF är det möjligt att ställa en preimplantorisk genetisk diagnostik (PGD) vilken kan ge information om genetiska sjukdomar och andra anlag, såväl som kön och kromosomfel. Enligt Julian Savulescu, som förespråkar the Principle of Procreative Beneficence, är vi moraliskt skyldiga att välja ett friskt embryo, vilket också anses vara det rätta embryot. I kontrast till detta ställs Christine Overall som menar att Savulescus princip innebär problem för hur vi bör se på barnafödande. Jag diskuterar vidare hur vi utifrån ett socialt och ett samhällsperspektiv kan se det som moraliskt tveksamt att förbjuda att personer med vissa anlag föds, samt försöker visa på Savulescus ignorans för hur IVF fungerar och att detta bidrar till att hans argument fallerar.

My dissertation develops and defends a contemporary Aristotelian form of political liberalism. I articulate an Aristotelian interpretation of individual autonomy as excellence in deliberating about ends, and develop a decision-theoretic model for representing this type of deliberation. I then provide a precise characterization of individual freedom, building on Amartya Sen’s neo-Aristotelian theory of freedom as capability. I argue that we should understand individual liberty, the guiding value of political liberalism, as a compound of autonomy and freedom as I have articulated these notions. I then argue that liberty in this sense is the proper focus of a liberal theory of distributive justice. I provide a teleological justification of the state’s authority to pursue a liberty-based program of distributive justice, and argue for a liberty-based interpretation of the harm principle as the appropriate limitation on state action. / text

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

In Jacques Maritain's text The Education of Man (1962) a Christian perspective affirming the individual's free will is presented. This study examines the validity of Maritain's argument and speculates upon some consequences for public schooling. The conclusions of the study are as follows: First. Maritain's exposition of the existence of absolute free will is unconvincing as it is not successfully reconciled with his religious world view. Second. if Maritain's views may be assumed to complement the religous educational and institutional objectives of Alberta's Catholic schools, the potential for conflict between these views and the 'secular' (i.e. the common goals, contents and processes of all public and separte schools) objectives of Catholic schools exists. / vi, 81 leaves ; 28 cm.

As a conjunctural construct located between politics, society and art, the popular-democratic construes the resistance literature of the 1970s and 1980s as being expressive of an entire social movement to end oppression and transform society. Through the construct of the popular-democratic voices that have been marginalised, fragmented, dislocated, excluded or otherwise silenced can be seen in relation to each other and to the sources of oppression. The introductory chapter addresses the characteristics of the popular-democratic, and the caveats and challenges that attend it. The remaining nine chapters are divided into three sections of three chapters each. The first section examines repression of different types: structural repression, coercive repression/state violence and cultural repression. An important index of the structural oppression of apartheid is the home, which a range of resistance writers addressed in depth when they dealt with city life and the townships, forced removals, homeless people, rural struggles, migrants and hostels, commuting, the "homelands" and exile. The coercive apparatus of the state, the security forces, were used against dissidents in the neighbouring states and within the country. The literature addresses the effects of the cross border raids, assassinations, abductions and bombings. The literature that deals with internal repression examines the effects of the mass detentions, restrictions, listings and bannings as well as the impact of the states of emergency, P.W. Botha's "total strategy", and the actions of the death squads. An examination of the conservative liberal constructions of resistance literature helps to clarify why resistance literature remains inadequately conceptualised ("Soweto poets", "protest literature") although there has been a vibrant and challenging corpus. The way in which the audience of resistance literature is constructed is identified as a key problem. The responses of various resistance writers, in poems, interviews, letters and articles, to conservative liberal prescriptions are contextualised. The middle section of the argument focuses on the organisations that developed to challenge oppression. Through an examination of the literature that was influenced by the activism and the cultural and philosophical production of Black Consciousness, it is apparent that the movement was continuous with the rest of the struggle for liberation. The satirical poems that challenged both the state and the conservative liberals offer powerful displays of verbal wit. The struggles of workers are addressed through texts that deal with their plight and call for worker organisations. The trade union COSA TV paid close attention to the development of worker culture, which proved to be critical when the state cracked down on the resistance organisations. The production values and effects of very different plays about strikes, The Long March and Township Fever receive particular attention. The rise of the United Democratic Front (UDF) is anticipated in literature that celebrates the potential of ordinary South Africans to achieve political significance through unity. Constructed out of substantial ideological pluralism, the UDF arose as an act of political imagination and organisational strategy. The ideological convergence between the UDF and COSATU on the question of bidding for state power constituted a turning-point in a nation built on the intolerance of difference. The last section focuses more closely on the productive responses of the culture of resistance to specific aspects of repression, such as the censorship of the media and the arts, the killings of activists, the struggles around education and the keeping of historical records (which enable an interrogation and reconstruction of discursive and interpretive authority). / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.

Although the concept of liberty provided the intellectual foundation for the legitimacy of state power and social order in both Canadas from as early as the Atlantic Revolution (1776--1815), it has never been used to study the history of state formation in Canada. This dissertation examines the essential role that the concept of liberty played in the process of state formation in Canada between the American Revolution (1776) and the Act of Union (1841). It proposes a large-scale re-reading of the intellectual and political history of that period through the question of liberty within the framework of the British Empire and of the Atlantic world (Great Britain, The United States and France). Beginning from a theoretical framework inspired by the work of intellectual historians of the Atlantic world, such as J. G. A. Pocock, Bernard Bailyn, Gordon S. Wood and Quentin Skinner, by the philosophical considerations on liberty from Isaiah Berlin and by a reading of the most important philosophical writings of eighteenth-century Britain, France and United States, this dissertation argues that, from 1791 and onwards, Upper and Lower Canada developed according to a concept of liberty that, while being different from the notion of liberty at work during the Atlantic Revolution, still proceeded directly from the Enlightenment. Less preoccupied by equality and community than by individual autonomy, this ideal was based on a respect for certain individual rights which are often reduced to the trio of "liberty, property and security." Politically, this model of liberty recognized the existence of different interests within a society and their right to exist, and economically, the importance it gave to the protection of private property led to an ethic that encouraged the accumulation of wealth. / This conception of liberty (which might be called a modern definition of liberty) provides the intellectual base for the Constitutional Act of 1791 and was generally accepted in Upper and Lower Canadian societies until 1828. At that moment, some reformists, disappointed by the slowness of the British government to bring reform to the colonies, adopted a republican discourse based on the idea of popular sovereignty and the very different trio of "liberty, equality and community". The political struggles of the 1830s in both Canadas can be explained in part by examining the opposition between these two very different concepts of liberty. The tension between these two models ended with the 1837 rebellions and the triumph of the modern concept of liberty at the expense of the republican ideal defended by the patriots and the radicals in both Canadas. It is in this context that Lord Durham's report was published. By his recommendation of rendering the executive power accountable to the Legislative Assembly, Durham gave back to the reformists still adhering to the modern concept of liberty the leadership of the reform movement in the colony and re-focussed the movement's attention towards the issue of responsible government. After 1839, the debate within the colonies would concentrate on the practice of political power, rather than on its legitimacy.

This work seeks to settle the doctrine of self-determination in international law. Drawing upon a selection of historical thinkers who have concentrated upon the value of freedom, a theory of political liberty, is developed. This is situated in relation to political history from the Age of Revolutions on. The development of the formal principle of self-determination is discussed. This reveals a doctrine lacking coherence. The philosophy of political liberty is proposed as a foundation for self-determination in law. The way this new approach manifests itself in practice, and its merits, are considered in relation to the politics of Crimea, with a focus on the immediate post-Soviet period of 1991-2002. In conclusion, a programme for implementation and refinement is offered. It is also noted that one could fashion a new approach to international law as a whole on the basis of the logic that is employed here to settle the doctrine of self-determination.