In contemporary philosophy of mind, the issue of consciousness has taken center stage. Broadly speaking, those who deal with consciousness fall into two camps: those who prioritize empirical work and those who favor conceptual investigation. One prominent argument has served to deepen the divide: the argument for the possibility of zombies. In this paper I intend to examine closely this argument, as it’s presented by David Chalmers, and some of the attempts to discredit it. In so doing, I present some of my own arguments against it, as well as the claim that if it’s sound, then materialism is false. Finally, I present a sketch of a new way of thinking about consciousness that would, I argue, guard against the threat—real or merely apparent—of arguments such as the zombie-argument.

This study examines the impact of political information conveyed through social media. Using the popular social network site (SNS), Facebook, I conduct a quasi-lab experiment, survey experiment, and randomized field experiment involving undergraduate students to explore the extent to which peer-to-peer communication via social media can increase political knowledge, change political attitudes, and mobilize people to vote.

While designing jet-engine components information about the loads that the component will be subjected to, is critical. For this, a full system analysis of the engine is often performed with every component put together in a large finite element model, which is called the whole engine model (WEM). This model will mostly be composed of lower order shell elements with a few thousands of elements. At the design level of a component, the FE model is detailed with several hundred thousand higher order solid elements. The detailed model cannot be directly put into the whole engine model due to excessive run times. Therefore there must be a simpler representation of the component -a sub-model- with much fewer elements so that it can be assembled into the whole engine model. This simple model must have the same stiffness (load/displacement) in chosen directions, the same mass and the basic mode shapes and frequencies should also be the same with the detailed model. 4 different structural optimisation schemes were studied to prepare a model: sizing optimisation, optimisation with material properties as design variables, combined sizing and material property optimisation and free-size optimisation. Among these free-size optimisation where each element in the model has its own design variable -thickness- was found to be the most effective method. The stiffness could be matched to the detailed model as close as 5% and so also could the first two fundamental mode shapes and frequencies. Additionally, the initial sub-model prepared was used to do a preliminary study on how variations in casting dimensions would affect the stiffness of the component in a certain direction. This was done by creating a design of experiments (DoE) for the stiffness. A response surface for the stiffness was created in terms of the dimensions that have the most significant effect. This was later used to predict an interval for the stiffness based on variations in the cast dimensions with a confidence level of 99.7%.

The aim of this work was to design a set of rules for levodopa infusion dose adjustment in Parkinson’s disease based on a simulation experiments. Using this simulator, optimal infusions dose in different conditions were calculated. There are seven conditions (-3 to +3)appearing in a rating scale for Parkinson’s disease patients. By finding mean of the differences between conditions and optimal dose, two sets of rules were designed. The set of rules was optimized by several testing. Usefulness for optimizing the titration procedure of new infusion patients based on rule-based reasoning was investigated. Results show that both of the number of the steps and the errors for finding optimal dose was shorten by new rules. At last, the dose predicted with new rules well on each single occasion of majority of patients in simulation experiments.

A combination of some well known nonparametric tests to detect trend in location is considered. Simulation results show that the power of this combination is remarkably increased. (author's abstract) / Series: Forschungsberichte / Institut für Statistik

In this thesis I present an account of the formal semantics of counterfactuals that systematically deals with impossible antecedents. This, in turn, allows us to gain a richer understanding of what makes certain thought experiments informative in spite of the impossibility of the situations they consider. In Chapter II, I argue that there are major shortcomings in the leading theories of counterfactuals. The leading theories of counterfactuals (based on classical two-valued logic) are unable to account for counterfactuals with impossible antecedents. In such accounts, everything and anything follows from an impossible antecedent. In Chapter III, I examine some crucial notions such as conceivability, imaginability, and possibility. Herein I argue that there is a distinction to be made between the notions of conceiving and imagining. Conceivability, it turns out, is a sufficient condition for being a case. Recent literature on the semantics for relevance logic have made some use of the notion of a “state”, which differs from a world in that contradictions are true in some states; what is not done in that literature is to clarify how the notion of a state differs from an arbitrary collection of claims. I use the notion of a case as a (modal) tool to analyze counterfactuals with impossible antecedents, one for which, unlike the notion of states, it is clear why arbitrary collections of claims do not count. In Chapter IV, I propose a new account of counterfactuals. This involves modifying existing possible worlds accounts of counterfactuals by replacing possible worlds by the “cases” identified in Chapter III. This theory discerns counterfactuals such as: “If Dave squared the circle, he would be more famous than Gödel” which seems true, from others like: “If Dave squared the circle, the sun would explode”, which seems false. In Chapter V I discuss one of the main pay offs of having an account of counterfactuals that deals systematically with counterfactuals with impossible antecedents. To apply the new account of counterfactual to thought experiments, first we have to transform the thought experiment in question into a series of counterfactuals. I show how this is to be done, in Chapter V. There are two advantages of such an account when we apply it to thought experiments: First, for thought experiments with impossible scenarios, our new account can explain how such thought experiments can still be informative. Secondly, for thought experiments like the Chinese Room, where it is not clear whether there is a subtle impossibility in the scenario or not, this new account with its continuous treatment of possible and impossible cases makes clear why the debate about such thought experiments looks the way it does. The crucial question is not whether there is such an impossibility, but what is the "nearest" situation in which there is a Chinese Room (whether it is impossible or not) and what we would say there (about the intentionality of the room). On traditional accounts, it becomes paramount to deal with the possibility question, because if it is an impossible scenario the lessons we learn are very different from the ones we learn if it is possible. There are no available theories of thought experiments that account for thought experiments with impossible/incomplete scenarios. With the new account of counterfactual and by applying it to thought experiments we over come this difficulty.

<p>Glycerol is one of the by-products of transesterification of fatty acids for the production of bio-diesel. Value-added products such as hydrogen, wood stabilizers and liquid chemicals from catalytic treatment of glycerol can improve the economics of the bio-diesel production process. Catalytic conversion of glycerol can be used for production of value-added liquid chemicals. In this work, a systematic study has been conducted to evaluate the effects of operating conditions on glycerol conversion to liquid chemical products in the presence of acid catalysts. </p><p>Central composite design for response surface method was used to design the experimental plan. Experiments were performed in a fixed-bed reactor using HZSM-5, HY, silica-alumina and ã-alumina catalysts. The temperature, carrier gas flow rate and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) were maintained in the range of 350-500 oC, 20-50 mL/min and 5.40-21.60 h -1, respectively. </p><p>The main liquid chemicals detected in liquid product were acetaldehyde, acrolein, formaldehyde and hydroxyacetone. Under all experimental conditions complete glycerol conversion was obtained over silica-alumina and ã-alumina. A maximum liquid product yield of approximately 83 g/100g feed was obtained with these two catalysts when the operating conditions were maintained at 380 oC, 26 mL/min and 8.68 h-1. Maximum glycerol conversions of 100 wt% and 78.8 wt% were obtained in the presence of HY and HZSM-5 at temperature, carrier gas flow rate and WHSV of 470 oC, 26 mL/min and 8.68 h-1. HY and HZSM-5 produced maximum liquid product of 80.9 and 59.0 g/100 g feed at temperature of 425 and 470 oC, respectively.</p><p>Silica-alumina produced the maximum acetaldehyde (~24.5 g/100 g feed) whereas ã-alumina produced the maximum acrolein (~25 g/100 g feed). Also, silica-alumina produced highest formaldehyde yield of 9g/100 g feed whereas HY produced highest acetol yield of 14.7 g/100 g feed. The effect of pore size of these catalysts was studied on optimum glycerol conversion and liquid product yield. Optimum conversion increased from 80 to 100 wt% and optimum liquid product increased from 59 to 83.3 g/100 g feed when the pore size of catalyst was increased from 0.54 in case of HZSM-5 to 0.74 nm in case of HY, after which the effect of pore size was minimal.

Early transition metal oxide clusters have been a focus of study for several years. The production of vanadium oxide cluster anions in a pulsed helium flow reactor provides a relatively precise way of introducing defect sites and controlling the oxidation state of the vanadium atoms. The composition of the clusters can be changed from the V2O5 stoichiometry, where the vanadium atom is in a +5 oxidation state, to more reduced stoichiometries yielding a mixture of oxidation states containing atoms in the +2 oxidation state. The subsequent addition of reactant gases such as H2O and SO2 yields very intense adsorption reactions as well as a demonstration of the robustness of particular defect free clusters. For example, the cluster has been identified as a defect free cluster where all vanadium atoms are in the +5 oxidation state and all oxygen atoms are predicted to be in the 2- state. The cluster has been shown to not adsorb SO2- while clusters in a reduced oxidation state, such as and readily adsorb one or more SO2 molecules. The adsorption process has been shown to be size dependent, with the smallest monovanadium oxide anions being the most reactive.

This research details the development of a novel process for four commercially available no-flow fluxing underfills for use with flip chip on FR4 substrates. The daisy chain test die was used such that two point resistance measurements could be used to determine the integrity of the solder interconnects post reflow. The impact of the underfill dispensing pattern on underfill void formation is determined in a full factorial dispense DOE that includes two factors: pattern and speed. Evaluation metrics include underfill material voiding and fillet shape. The impact of the placement process is determined in a second full factorial DOE involving three factors at two levels each: dispense pattern, placement force, and dwell time. Metrics include interconnect yield and underfill voiding. The results of these DOEs are used to select an optimal placement process for each material to be used for the remaining reflow experiments. The process developed is a novel approach to no-flow processing; the material is dispensed to the side of the bond site and allowed to flow under the chip after placement by capillary action during the early stages of reflow. This development allows for void free assemblies using no-flow materials. Reflow parameters are investigated using a parametric approach. The following parameters are varied at 2 levels individually off a baseline profile: Peak Temperature, Time > 183 oC, Peak Ramp Rate, Soak Time, and Soak Temperature. A ranking was developed for each material based on the observable metrics: interconnect yield, underfill material voiding, two point resistance, and a grain area fraction term. The results were used to select an optimal assembly process for each material. Test boards were assembled in replicates of 30 according to the optimal process for each material, and AATC -40 to 125 oC thermal cycling test was performed. The MTTF for these assemblies has exceeded 3000 cycles; the void free process successfully avoids premature failure due to solder extrusion into voids. Further process development work has demonstrated that the process is scalable to larger area array die and other edge dispense patterns have also been demonstrated to result in void free assemblies.

Equipped with advanced field instruments in the past few decades, oceanographers have been able to comprehend some characteristics of the internal waves(IWs), such as the generation, propagation and energy dissipation, as well as to promote understanding in oceanography and marine ecology affected by IWs in the world ocean. Although surface gravity wave and internal wave are two of the most common natural phenomena in the ocean, the interaction between them has not been fully investigated, despite limited theoretical derivations in the literature, nor using laboratory experiments to verify the theory. A series of laboratory experiments were conducted at the National Sun Yen-sen University to study the waveform evolution of continuous IWs propagation on the flat bottom and across a trapezoidal obstacle. Surface waves were generated on a density stratified fluid system in a wave flume, from which IWs were induced indirectly to investigate their wave properties associated with their propagation . The experimental results are then used to determine the maximum depth which could be affected by surface waves in different wave conditions(wave height and period), as well as the amplitude of the IWs induced. The relationship between them are then presented in graphic form. Experiments were also conducted in uniform density and stratified fluid system with a trapezoidal obstacle. The results reveal that (1)long-period surface waves were susceptible to the interaction with the IWs in a stratified system, thus rendering wave height reduction, and (2)short-period surface waves interactions with their IWs counterparts was insignificant, hence yielded wave height similar to that in uniform density fluid system. Moreover, experiments were also conducted to study for long and short period IW propagated over pseudo slope-shelf(using trapezoidal obstacle). The results show that the variation in the IWs significantly affected the strength of internal hydraulic jump and vortices on the front slope and subsequent waveform inversion on the horizontal plateau. For IWs with short period, the horizontal distance on the plateau affected by the IWs was shirter and the total time of wave-topography interaction decreased.