In various parts of Ethics, Spinoza explains both the existence and the necessity of the existence of things, like God, through their perfection(Proofs and Scholium to theorem 11 of part 1 and Scholium 2 for Theorem 33 of part 1). In this paper I attempt to elaborate on the suggestion made by Don Garrett, in Spinoza's Necessitariansim (2018), that Spinoza might have thought that no other world is possible but the one that expresses the greatest possible perfection. I will show that Spinoza's understanding of perfection is intimately connected with "Spinoza's PSR" and his understanding of casuality, to make Garrett's suggestion more probable. The paper is motivated by Koistinen's concerns, in Spinoza's Proof of Necessitarianism (2003), that Garrett's suggestion is too weak to entail necessitarianism. I'll show that Koistinens presented concerns can be rebutted and that the explication for the perfection of the world or "system of finite modes" that he ascribes to Garrett is flawed because it doesn't reflect how Spinoza uses the notion of perfection in Ethics. / <p>Höstterminen 2023</p>

Yes / The biomass gasification process is widely accepted as a popular technology to produce fuel for the application in gas turbines and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). Chemical reactions of this process can be separated into three reaction zones: pyrolysis, combustion, and reduction. In this study, sensitivity analysis with respect to three input parameters (gasification temperature, equivalence ratio, and steam-to-biomass ratio) has been carried out to achieve energy self-sufficient conditions in a steam gasification process under the criteria that the carbon conversion efficiency must be more than 70%, and carbon dioxide gas is lower than 20%. Simulation models of the steam gasification process have been carried out by ASPEN Plus and validated with both experimental data and simulation results from Nikoo & Mahinpey (2008). Gasification temperature of 911 °C, equivalence ratio of 0.18, and a steam-to-biomass ratio of 1.78, are considered as an optimal operation point to achieve energy self-sufficient condition. This operating point gives the maximum of carbon conversion efficiency at 91.03%, and carbon dioxide gas at 15.18 volumetric percentages. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) is included to compare the environmental performance of conventional and energy self-sufficient gasification for steam biomass gasification. / Financing of this research was supported by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under Grant Number PHD57I0054 and the Institutional Research Grant by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under Grant Number IRG 5780014 and Chulalongkorn University, Contact No. RES_57_411_21_076.

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In sufficient dimension reduction (Li, 1991; Cook, 1998b), original predictors are replaced by their low-dimensional linear combinations while preserving all of the conditional information of the response given the predictors. Sliced inverse regression [SIR; Li, 1991] and principal Hessian directions [PHD; Li, 1992] are two popular sufficient dimension reduction methods, and both SIR and PHD estimators involve all of the original predictor variables. To deal with the cases when the linear combinations involve only a subset of the original predictors, we propose a Bayesian model averaging (Raftery et al., 1997) approach to achieve sparse sufficient dimension reduction. We extend both SIR and PHD under the Bayesian framework. The superior performance of the proposed methods is demonstrated through extensive numerical studies as well as a real data analysis. / Statistics

Existing sufficient dimension reduction (SDR) methods typically consider cases with no missing data. The dissertation aims to propose methods to facilitate the SDR methods when the response can be missing. The first part of the dissertation focuses on the seminal sliced inverse regression (SIR) approach proposed by Li (1991). We show that missing responses generally affect the validity of the inverse regressions under the mechanism of missing at random. We then propose a simple and effective adjustment with inverse probability weighting that guarantees the validity of SIR. Furthermore, a marginal coordinate test is introduced for this adjusted estimator. The proposed method share the simplicity of SIR and requires the linear conditional mean assumption. The second part of the dissertation proposes two new estimating equation procedures: the complete case estimating equation approach and the inverse probability weighted estimating equation approach. The two approaches are applied to a family of dimension reduction methods, which includes ordinary least squares, principal Hessian directions, and SIR. By solving the estimating equations, the two approaches are able to avoid the common assumptions in the SDR literature, the linear conditional mean assumption, and the constant conditional variance assumption. For all the aforementioned methods, the asymptotic properties are established, and their superb finite sample performances are demonstrated through extensive numerical studies as well as a real data analysis. In addition, existing estimators of the central mean space have uneven performances across different types of link functions. To address this limitation, a new hybrid SDR estimator is proposed that successfully recovers the central mean space for a wide range of link functions. Based on the new hybrid estimator, we further study the order determination procedure and the marginal coordinate test. The superior performance of the hybrid estimator over existing methods is demonstrated in simulation studies. Note that the proposed procedures dealing with the missing response at random can be simply adapted to this hybrid method. / Statistics

This dissertation focuses on two problems in dimension reduction. One is using permutation approach to test predictor contribution. The permutation approach applies to marginal coordinate tests based on dimension reduction methods such as SIR, SAVE and DR. This approach no longer requires calculation of the method-specific weights to determine the asymptotic null distribution. The other one is through combining clustering method with robust regression (least absolute deviation) to estimate dimension reduction subspace. Compared with ordinary least squares, the proposed method is more robust to outliers; also, this method replaces the global linearity assumption with the more flexible local linearity assumption through k-means clustering. / Statistics

The thesis brings urban planning and sustainable development. Introduces low-energy construction and its types. Closer focuses on self- sufficient house, describing his characteristics, principles, and selection of suitable location. Finally, the work addresses the legislation associated with the placement of a self-sufficient house on suitable parcel.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the ward manager in creating a conducive clinical learning environment for nursing students. An explorative descriptive research method was employed. Findings reveal that the ward managers are generally satisfied with the way in which they handled the important role they play in facilitating teaching and learning for nursing students. They feel strongly, however, that the nursing students themselves need to be active in the learning process. While acknowledging the efforts of the ward managers in creating and maintaining the learning environment, nursing students were dissatisfied about several aspects that appeared to be lacking in the clinical environment, such as good interpersonal relations, support, exposure to practice administrative skills (for example, problem-solving and decision-making) and lack of feedback about their performance. There appears to be a need to develop more effective support structures within the learning environment so that nursing students can obtain sufficient exposure to learning opportunities. / Health Studies / M.A. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)

Some of the attributes of a perfect being (e.g. first cause, necessary being, intelligent creator) are established on the basis of theological arguments such as the cosmological and the teleological. At the deepest level, these theological arguments are based on principles of rational psychology such as simplicity and sufficient reason. Moreover, belief that the perfect being is the moral omnipotent God is an act of trust and thus based on the rational psychology of trust. Theists in the Abrahamic tradition subscribe to first cause/necessary being/intelligent creator theology and must therefore remain faithful to any psychological principles (simplicity, sufficient reason, trust) that are the rational grounds for believing in the existence of their God. But such faithfulness results in a deep tension within Judeo-Christian theism. For example, a Christian theist who believes in the Trinity must at the same time remain faithful to the principle of simplicity that rejects the Trinity. Because simplicity is the rational basis for the deeply cherished attributes of the Christian God (first cause/necessary being/intelligent creator), it is argued that faithfulness to psychological principles such as simplicity discipline Christian theistic belief, in particular the belief in the Trinity. Examples of this nature offer a framework for a similar disciplining of Islamic hermeneutics on the basis of rational psychology. Muslim interpreters tend not to systematically engage in the philosophy of religion, and for this reason do not explicitly articulate the psychological principles that gave them their theistic Muslim identity. As a result, they deviate from such principles when it comes time to interpret the original sources of Islam (Quran and Sunna). Consistency is one of the demands of rationality, and it is inconsistent to assume principles in arriving at a theistic Muslim identity and then subsequently fail to apply those principles consistently to the task of textual interpretation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-02-18Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:07:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 maia_scm_me_botfca.pdf: 3637798 bytes, checksum: 42c60ca08ea3f3717b8ba3a464ed6462 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Técnicas de manejo que possibilitem a maximização de absorção de N pelo feijoeiro são de extrema importância, em razão do alto custo dos fertilizantes nitrogenados e das perdas de N, que podem representar prejuízos aos produtores e riscos ao ambiente. Nesse sentido, a estimativa da necessidade de N pelo feijoeiro mediante a leitura indireta de clorofila, pelo clorofilômetro portátil, pode ser uma alternativa viável. Contudo, ainda existe a necessidade de estabelecimento de critérios para a utilização desse aparelho na cultura do feijão. Os objetivos do presente trabalho foram: a) verificar a correlação entre o índice relativo de clorofila (IRC), obtido mediante leituras do clorofilômetro portátil (SPAD- 502), e o teor de N da folha de dois cultivares de feijão (IAC Alvorada e Pérola) em diversos estádios de desenvolvimento; b) verificar o comportamento do IRC e do índice de suficiência de N (ISN) em função dos manejos de N aplicado em cobertura; c) avaliar o ISN calculado com base nas medidas IRC nas folhas como indicador do momento de aplicação de N em cobertura na cultura do feijão e, d) verificar qual valor do ISN (90% e 95%) em relação ao tratamento referência é o mais adequado para indicar o momento da adubação nitrogenada em cada cultivar utilizado. O trabalho foi constituído de um experimento conduzido durantes as safras “das águas” e “da seca” do ano agrícola 2009/2010, na Fazenda Experimental Lageado da FCA/UNESP - Botucatu-SP. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos ao acaso, em esquema de parcela subdividias, com quatro repetições. As parcelas foram constituídas por dois cultivares de feijão (Pérola e IAC Alvorada) e as subparcelas por seis manejos do N M1: 40 kg ha-1 de N na semeadura + 80 kg ha-1 de N aos 15 dias após a emergência (DAE) + 80 kg ha-1 de N aos 30 DAE; M2: 20 kg ha-1 de N na semeadura... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Management techniques that allow the maximization of N uptake by bean crop are extremely important, because of high cost of nitrogen fertilizers and N losing, which may represent losses to producers and risks to the environment. In this sense, the estimation of N needs of common bean crop by indirect reading of chlorophyll can be a viable alternative. However, there is remains the need to establish criteria for using this device in the bean. The aims of this study were: a) determine the correlation between relative chlorophyll index (RCI), obtained by reading of chlorophyll (SPAD 502) and leaf N content of two bean cultivars (IAC Alvorada and Pérola) in various stages of development; b) verify the behavior of the RCI and N sufficiency index (NSI) for different sidedressing N management practices; c) evaluated the NSI calculated based on the measures RCI leaves as an indicator of time of N application in sidedressing on bean crop and d) verify that value of NSI (90% and 95%) compared to the reference treatment is most appropriate to indicate the moment of fertilization in each cultivar. The work was composed of an experiment conducted in rainy and dry season of agricultural year 2009/2010 at the Experimental Lageado Farm FCA/UNESP - Botucatu-SP. A randomized block in split plot scheme, with four replications was used. Plots consisted of two bean cultivars (IAC Alvorada and Pérola) and subplots of six N managements M1: 40 kg ha-1 N at sowing + 80 kg ha-1 at 15 days after emergence (DAE) + 80 kg ha-1 N at 30 DAE; M2: 20 kg ha-1 N at sowing + 40 kg ha-1 N at 15 DAE + 40 kg ha-1 N at 30 DAE; M3: 10 kg ha-1 N at sowing + 20 kg ha-1 N at 15 DAE + 20 kg ha-1 N at 30 DAE; M4: 20 kg ha-1 N at sowing + 30 kg ha-1 N when chlorophyll meter readings indicated NSI <95%; M5: 20 kg ha-1 N at sowing + 30 kg N ha-1 N when chlorophyll meter readings indicated NSI <90% and, M6: control (without nitrogen)... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)