Segundo o teorema da indefinibilidade de Tarski-Gödel, não existe fórmula da linguagem da aritmética que defina o conjunto dos números de Gödel das sentenças verdadeiras da aritmética. No entanto, para cada número natural n, podemos definir o conjunto dos números de Gödel das sentenças verdadeiras da aritmética de grau menor que n. Essas definições produzem uma hierarquia V0(x), V1(x),..., Vn(x),... tal que, para todo x, se Vn(x), então Vn+1(x). Nesse estudo, ensairemos algumas aplicações desses predicados, chamados definições parciais de verdade, e outros predicados relacionados a eles na construção de sistemas formais para as verdades da aritmética. A ideia subjacente aos nossos sistemas é muito simples, devemos acumular de alguma maneira as definições parciais de verdade. Grosso modo, mostrar como fazê-lo é o objetivo desse estudo. / According to Tarski-Gödels undefinability theorem, there is no formula in the language of arithmetic which defines the set of Gödel numbers of arithmetical true sentences. Nevertheless, for each n, we can define the set of Gödel numbers of all arithmetical true sentences of degree n or less. These definitions yield a hierarchy of predicates V0(x), V1(x),..., Vn(x),... such that, for all x, if Vn(x), then Vn+1(x). In this study, we will ensay some aplications of these predicates, called partial truth definitions, and others related ones in building of formal systems for arithmetical truth. The underlying idea of our systems is very simple, we should accumulate in some way the partial truth definitions. Roughly speaking, showing how we can do that is the aim of this study.

O objetivo da tese é mostrar, através da análise dos textos da obra Contra Academicos de Agostinho, o estamento da verdade: a sua situação e o seu valor. Para isso começamos por contextualizar a obra, fazendo uma divisão em três momentos importantes que a retórica usa na construção do discurso e que encontrariam uma certa correspondência com o percurso da vida de Agostinho. Deste modo, chegamos a compreender a importância de sua análise da verdade e o porquê da argumentação usada contra os acadêmicos, destacando a tríade Filosofia e Sabedoria, Razão e Autoridade, Platão e Cristo. / On the basis of a textual analysis of Contra Academicos, this thesis seeks to show the role of truth: its status and its value for Augustine. To accomplish that goal, I will, first of all, present the work in its context, dividing it into the three most important components which rhetoric utilizes in the construction of a discourse - components which to some degree correspond to the stages of Augustine\'s life. In that way, this thesis will seek to understand the importance of his analysis of truth and the reason for the kind of argumentation he follows, highlighting, as he does, the triad of Philosophy and Wisdom, Reason and Authority, Plato and Christ.

Cette thèse retrace le parcours existentiel de Gesualdo Bufalino à la recherche de la vérité. C’est un itinéraire que l'écrivain sicilien accomplit à travers le philtre de la littérature française, domaine privilégié de sa formation dès son plus jeune âge. La première phase, dans le chapitre qui s’intitule "Bufalino et les poètes français", identifie un très jeune Bufalino à la recherche d'une vérité "esthétique". Cette période va de l'enfance à l'appel aux armes, plus ou moins entre 1930 et 1942. Formé pendant l'adolescence à la lecture des symbolistes français et de Baudelaire, c’est surtout de ce dernier que le jeune Bufalino dégage sa vision existentielle, des outils de rhétorique, des émotions, une pléthore d'images et, plus que toute autre chose, une vision de la littérature comme dépositaire d'une vérité indéchiffrable, activité à laquelle il se consacre inlassablement, jusqu'à privilégier le culte de la forme.La deuxième phase, que l’on abordera dans le chapitre s’intitulant "Bufalino et les écrivains catholiques français", se déroule depuis 1942, année où Bufalino fut appelé au front, jusqu'à 1950. Au fil de ces années, Bufalino a entrepris une féconde correspondance avec l'intellectuel Angelo Romanò qui, aux prises comme Bufalino lui-même avec des doutes religieux, a initié l’écrivain sicilien à de nombreuses lectures et en particulier à celles des écrivains catholiques français, parmi lesquels nous avons isolé Claudel, Mauriac, Bernanos et Cendrars qui nous ont semblé plus utiles que d'autres dans l’observation et l’analyse de la recherche de la foi chez Bufalino.La troisième phase, dans le chapitre qui s’intitule "Bufalino et les écrivains éxistentialistes français" débute à peu près dans les années ‘50 et se termine en 1981, lors de la publication de son premier roman, ‘Diceria dell'untore’. C’est une période qui commence par un intérêt pour la vérité de la raison, ce qui deviendra plus tard une préférence marquée en particulier pour l'œuvre d'Albert Camus. La quatrième et dernière phase que l’on abordera dans le chapitre s’intitulant "Bufalino et la vérité plurielle" commence immédiatement après 1981 et analyse le tournant final de la recherche spirituelle de Bufalino jusqu'à la fin de sa vie, en 1996. Bufalino renoncera définitivement aux options métaphysiques et matérialistes. Il confiera entièrement sa quête de sens à la littérature, considérée comme une écriture différemment « sacrée » / This thesis retraces the existential itinerary in search of the truth of the Sicilian writer G. Bufalino, with a particular focus on the filter of the French literature that, from an early age, constituted the privileged field of reference for his formation.It starts from the years ranging from childhood to the call to arms, therefore more or less from the period between 1930 and 1942. Formed as a teenager on French symbolists and especially on Baudelaire, the young Bufalino got an existential vision, tools rhetoricians, emotions, a mass of images, and more than anything else a vision of literature as the depositary of an indecipherable truth, an activity to be indefatigably dedicated to and spent on until it consecrates its existence to the cult of form. The second phase is "Bufalino and the French Catholic writers" and goes approximately from 1942, the year in which he was called to the front, until '50. In these years, Bufalino undertook a fruitful correspondence with the intellectual Angelo Romanò who, in turn engaged in religious travails, began it to many readings and in particular to that of French Catholic writers, among whom we have isolated Claudel, Mauriac , Bernanos, Cendrars who seemed to us more than others useful to observe a Bufalino in search of a truth of faith. The third phase of the spiritual life of Bufalino is “Bufalino and the French Existentialist writers” and begins roughly in the 50s and ends in 1981, the year of the publication of his first novel, ‘Diceria dell'untore’. It begins with an interest in the truth of reason and later with a marked preference in particular for the work of Albert Camus. The fourth and last phase is “Bufalino and the plural truth’ and begins immediately after 1981, and observes the final turning point of Bufalino's spiritual research until the end of his life, that is until 1996. Bufalino will definitively renounce both the metaphysical and the materialistic options, and he will entrust his sense question entirely to literary research, understood as a differently 'sacred' writing

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Following the formal conclusion of reconciliatory processes in a newly post-apartheid South Africa, narrative remained a perdurable, centripetal force. Extending into the realm of literature, the inquiries of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were altered and enlarged. The mode of magical realism, in particular, emerged as a viable method not only for representing the world, but for working through uncertain futures and traumatic histories. Shimmering with the extraordinary and ineffable strangeness of the magical realist text, Achmat Dangor’s short story “The Devil”, offers expansive, recognizable and revelatory ways of dealing with the trauma of apartheid. Crucially, the narrative represents the private efforts of individual, personal healing in contradistinction with official processes of reconciliation. This thesis examines the ways in which “The Devil” proposes the body as a site of exploring the structuring antipodes of individual-collective and public-private, ultimately untethering these binaries through a process of bodily dis/entwining.

I take inspiration from ordinary objects and materials. Through photography, I attempt to transcend the familiar to discover complexity within the bits and pieces of my everyday life. Like other artistic representations, a photograph is a singular portrayal, not an actualization of physical reality. My artistic exploration of this involves incorporating elements of abstraction to point to the truth that all photographs are, by nature, an abstraction of our physical reality based on perspective. The resulting images often share a quality of impermanence, counterbalanced by the act of making a photographic document. By evoking this temporal quality of photography and abstracting familiar materials and surfaces, I aim to create a playful tension in my imagery.

With the advancement of technology, medical imaging has become a fast growing area of research. Some imaging questions require little physician analysis, such as diagnosing a broken bone, using a 2-D X-ray image. More complicated questions, using 3-D scans, such as computerized tomography (CT), can be much more difficult to answer. For example, estimating tumor growth to evaluate malignancy; which informs whether intervention is necessary. This requires careful delineation of different structures in the image. For example, what is the tumor versus what is normal tissue; this is referred to as segmentation. Currently, the gold standard of segmentation is for a radiologist to manually trace structure edges in the 3-D image, however, this can be extremely time consuming. Additionally, manual segmentation results can differ drastically between and even within radiologists. A more reproducible, less variable, and more time efficient segmentation approach would drastically improve medical treatment. This potential, as well as the continued increase in computing power, has led to computationally intensive semiautomated segmentation algorithms. Segmentation algorithms' widespread use is limited due to difficulty in validating their performance. Fusion models, such as STAPLE, have been proposed as a way to combine multiple segmentations into a consensus ground truth; this allows for evaluation of both manual and semiautomated segmentation in relation to the consensus ground truth. Once a consensus ground truth is obtained, a multitude of approaches have been proposed for evaluating different aspects of segmentation performance; segmentation accuracy, between- and within -reader variability. The focus of this dissertation is threefold. First, a simulation based tool is introduced to allow for the validation of fusion models. The simulation properties closely follow a real dataset, in order to ensure that they mimic reality. Second, a statistical hierarchical Bayesian fusion model is proposed, in order to estimate a consensus ground truth within a robust statistical framework. The model is validated using the simulation tool and compared to other fusion models, including STAPLE. Additionally, the model is applied to real datasets and the consensus ground truth estimates are compared across different fusion models. Third, a statistical hierarchical Bayesian performance model is proposed in order to estimate segmentation method specific accuracy, between- and within -reader variability. An extensive simulation study is performed to validate the model’s parameter estimation and coverage properties. Additionally, the model is fit to a real data source and performance estimates are summarized.

Doctor of Philosophy / Many criticisms of the prevalent deflationary theories of truth stem from some misunderstanding. Clarification can be found from considering Quine's reasoning on the disquotational feature of the truth predicate. Quine's disquotationalism and Horwich's minimalism are similar theses with respect to the concept of truth, though the difference between the choices of the primary truth bearers and the divergence in their accounts of meaning and reference are striking. Chapter Two is devoted to making plain Quine's reasoning regarding the disquotational concept of truth, and to constructing a disquotational theory of truth. Also in this chapter, the topic of how to enhance the deductive power of this theory is discussed. The following chapter aims to square Quine's theses of inscrutability of reference and ontological relativity, with an account of the disquotational schema of reference. Whether or not a disquotational schema of reference and all its instances can be seen as providing a genuine reference scheme, as claimed by Horwich and most deflationists, is also discussed. In Chapter Four, after an introduction of Horwich's minimalist conception of truth, there are a number of issues considered, in particular Horwich’s use-theoretic account of meaning and compositionality, along with the divergence between his account of meaning and Quine's. The final chapter, Chapter Five, provides a thorough analysis of three important factors regarding the disquotational theory and the minimal theory of truth. Among them, the first factor discussed is what sort of equivalence relation occurs within each instance of the disquotational schema or each axiom of the equivalence schema. Following this, there is an analysis of in what way the disquotationalist and the minimalist can explain all general facts involving truth. The last factor involves considering the proper ascription of the disquotational or the minimal truth predicate. Along with the analysis of these three factors, the issue regarding which theory of truth is preferable is elaborated.

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen var att på uppdrag av butiken Trolltyg beskriva företagets kunder utifrån deras grad av tillfredställelse och lojalitet till butiken. Samt att bidra med en bild av butikens styrkor och svagheter och på så vis även bidra med kunskap till företaget för att ge det möjligheter att stärka dess konkurrenskraft. Metoden hade en kvantitativ ansats och en enkät utformades för insamling av data. Vi kom fram till att respondenterna överlag var nöjda med butiken och med det bemötande de fått. De ansåg sig få en rättvis bedömning när det kommer till återköp och de upplevde att känslan de får av butiken är positiv. Respondenterna hade höga förväntningar på butiken som också uppfylldes, och många var så nöjda att de ofta berättade positivt om butiken för andra. Utefter detta drog vi slutsatsen att respondenterna är nöjda och lojala kunder, samt att en grupp, nämligen åldersgruppen 45-60 år, bör uppmärksammas lite extra då de kan anses vara väldigt lojala.</p>

It is my overall aim in this work to defend the view that knowledge is no more valuable than true belief or empirically adequate belief, and thus is not the primary epistemic good. I engage predominately with Jonathan Kvanvig‟s work for an assessment of the value of knowledge. In turn, I assess the arguments for the value of knowledge for their ability to support the view that knowledge is uniquely valuable. First I will consider an argument which relies on a purported connection between knowledge and proper action. It will then be suggested that arguments tying knowledge to our proper action are not adequate to justify this standard view of the value of knowledge. Furthermore, I will assess an argument that appeals to the value of truth to explain the superior value of knowledge. From this it will be concluded that truth is also less valuable than typically thought, consequently resulting in an overvaluation of knowledge. Lastly, I will investigate the possibility that knowledge has its value because of its stability and resistance to irrationality. Again, I will argue that this is insufficient justification of the standard view about the value of knowledge by offering counterexamples to both the stability of knowledge and knowledge‟s resistance to irrationality. After this I will discuss the implications of my analysis on the value of knowledge.