A remarkable thing about natural language is that we can use it to share our beliefs and thoughts about the world with other speakers of our language. In cases of successful communication, beliefs seem to be transferred from speakers to hearers by means of the hearer recovering the contents of the speaker’s utterances. This is so natural to us that we take it for granted in our everyday life, and rarely stop to think about how it's is possible. Nevertheless, it's a phenomenon that calls for explanation. It is natural to expect that natural language semantics has a key explanatory role to play here. In order to understand this role, we must relate the semantic values assigned to sentences by semantic theories with the contents of our speech acts. The simplest possible relation would be identity; the meaning of a sentence is simply the belief expressed by an assertion of the sentence in a given context of utterance. However, a number of problem cases in the literature suggest that this cannot be the case. This dissertation offers a critical assessment of the arguments for distinguishing the semantic value of a sentence from its so-called assertoric content, focusing on problems arising from the analysis of tense and temporal expressions. I conclude that they are indeed distinct, and offer a constructive account of how they must be related in order to allow for an explanation of communicative success.​

Hydropower plants are shifting towards operating at off-designed conditions, meaning that the number of start-stop cycles and maintenance time due to cavitation increases. The speed no-load condition is the moment before magnetization of the generator, i.e., no load, low flow, constant runner rotational speed, guide vane and runner blade angle. Since no load is applied, the water dissipates its energy in forms of highly recirculating and turbulent flow. This master thesis aim is to simulate the speed no-load condition on the Porjus U9 turbine and validate numerical values against experimental ones. ICEM CFD was used to mesh the domains and ANSYS CFX was used to perform the simulation. The setup was split into two zones, Zone 1 and Zone 2, and an intermediate zone overlapping both zones. Zone 1 consists of the penstock and spiral, the intermediate zone consists of the spiral and distributor passages and Zone 2 consists of a distributor passage, runner and draft tube. Streamlines in the runner and draft tube show highly recirculating flow from the draft tube back into the runner. The numerical values did not correspond well against the experimental. This is deemed most likely due to an overall low pressure over the runner blades. It is recommended as a first step to increase the quality of the runner and distributor mesh to get the simulation running with the cavitation model implemented.

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I present and defend an account of indexicals that treats indexicals as presuppositional expressions. I argue that the distinction between presupposed and asserted content can replace the more restrictive distinction between character and content that is characteristic of Kaplanian, two-dimensional views. My account, "Presuppositional Indexicals" (PI), is simpler than a two-dimensional account because it does not posit a special layer of meaning for indexicals that cannot interact with truth-conditional content. PI also has broader scope than two-dimensional theories. It opens the door to a general theory of definite noun phrases according to which all definites have two components to their meaning: an asserted component, which contributes new information to a discourse, and a presuppositional component, which determines where asserted information will be attached in a discourse. PI does not stipulate rigidity or referentiality for indexicals as many other theories do. Indexicals do receive a special semantic treatment in PI, but their special semantics are captured entirely in terms of a strategy that indexicals exhibit for the resolution of their presuppositions. / text

Liturgical creativity and reform has been a hallmark of Reconstructionist Judaism since its inception in America in the mid 1930s. All facets of Reconstructionist liturgy are molded to reflect and convey the movement's Jewish ideology. As such, much insight is gained by analyzing the full texts of the Reconstructionist prayerbooks, including translations, editors' notes, interpretive versions, supplementary readings, commentary, rubrics and layout. / The first Reconstructionist liturgies (1941--1963) were edited primarily by the movement's founder, Mordecai M. Kaplan, and were fashioned to mirror his understanding of modern belief, moral sense and aesthetic taste. Kaplan believed that only a text edited with these values in mind would succeed in returning American Jews to synagogue life. Sixty percent of Kaplan's Sabbath Prayer Book was devoted to supplementary readings, which strove to foster a positive view of the world and to motivate the quest for personal and collective salvation. For Kaplan, ethical living and a sense of the world's essential goodness constituted the essence of religious faith and life, and he believed that this was not sufficiently articulated in traditional prayer. / The inauguration of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1968 led to the transference of movement leadership from Kaplan's followers to a younger generation born after World War Two. This generational shift necessitated and facilitated the creation of the new Reconstructionist prayerbook series, Kol Haneshamah (1989--). While Reconstructionist liturgy continues to forward a fundamentally Kaplanian theology, it is less committed than was Kaplan to the position that all creedal formulations whose literal truth is rejected be excised from the text. Kol Haneshamah testifies to the movement's current openness to mystic paths of spiritual awakening and communing with the divine, and to its greater interest in cultivating and exploring the affective realm of human consciousness. Inclusivity, ecological responsibility, lay empowerment, and the creation of non-sexist terminology for addressing God and humanity have become primary Reconstructionist concerns. An examination of Reform, Conservative and Jewish Renewal liturgy indicates that, while many of the developments evident in contemporary Reconstructionist liturgy are mirrored in other branches of American non-Orthodox Judaism, Reconstructionist prayer remains a unique rite.

This thesis describes the survival analysis, exactly Kaplan-Meier estimate. A main part of the thesis deals with the problem of censored data, which is typical for survival analysis. The empirical part describes lenght of PhD studies at the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics and their "survival" in studies by Kaplan-Meier curves. First are analyzed uncensored data and then the whole data set (censored and uncensored data).

Background: Knowledge of the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) and hospitalization postpartum could reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. TB infections are prevalent in pregnant women living with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) compared to women not living with HIV in South Africa. Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is poor among pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV (WLHIV), thus making WLHIV at a higher risk of hospitalization postpartum, due to the increased risk of Cesarean delivery (CD) and obstetric conditions as a result of HIV. The prevalence of TB among pregnant and postpartum women is poorly defined including in high prevalence TB and HIV locations, indicating limited evidence. The aim is to explore the incidence of TB and hospitalization within four years postpartum among WLHIV, including associated risk factors. Methodology: The study population is from phase 2 of the Maternal and Child HealthAntiretroviral Therapy (MCH-ART) study. It is a single-arm observational cohort study of 628 WLHIV who attended antenatal care (ANC). Enrolment into phase 1 began in March 2013, the final deliveries from phase 2 were in December 2014, and the final follow-up visits were completed in 2016. MCH-ART is an ongoing study with global approval examining strategies for providing HIV care and treatment to HIV-infected women who initiate ART during pregnancy and their HIV-exposed infants. This study took place at the Midwife-Obstetric Unit (MOU) at Gugulethu Community Health Centre, Western Cape South Africa. It consists of three connected study designs and three phases through the antenatal and postnatal periods. Phase 1 is a cross-sectional study, phase 2 is a cohort study and phase 3 is a randomized trial. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to assess the incidence of TB and hospitalization over time among ix WLHIV up to four years postpartum and Cox regression was used to measure the effect of risk factors on the incidence of TB and hospitalization. Results: Thirty-five (35) WLHIV developed TB postpartum at a total person-time of 2365.1 woman-years. The incidence rate (IR) of developing TB among WLHIV postpartum was 1.48 (95% CI=1.03-2.06) cases per 100 woman-years from 2013 to 2018. Twenty-three (23) WLHIV was hospitalized postpartum and a total person-time of 552.8 woman-years was spent. The IR of hospitalization among WLHIV postpartum was 4.16 (95% CI=2.64-6.24) cases per 100 womanyears from 2013 to 2018. The IR of TB and hospitalization among WLHIV postpartum is statistically significant. Adjusting, for other risk factors, the history of diabetes at ANC, the history of TB at ANC and CD4 count (200 - <500) cells/mm3 at ANC also significantly increases the incidence of TB postpartum, whereas, obstetric reasons is associated with the hospitalization of WLHIV.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The crossing of Kaplan-Meier survival curves presents a challenge when conducting survival analysis studies, making it unclear whether any of the study groups involved present any significant difference in survival. An approach involving the determination of maximum vertical distance between the curves is considered here as a method to assess whether a survival advantage exists between different groups of patients. The method is illustrated on a dataset containing survival times of patients treated with two cancer treatment regimes, one involving treatment by chemotherapy alone, and the other by treatment with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The evidence suggesting Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has neurodevelopmental roots with specific impairment in executive functioning continues to grow. However, no known study to date has explored the relationship between adult males with a diagnosis of ADHD and performance on a measure of executive functioning, the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (DKEFS). The current investigation attempted to explore (1) whether adult males with ADHD show an overall pattern of executive dysfunction as measured by the DKEFS, (2) potential group differences on both level-of-performance and process-oriented measure scores, and (3) the clinical utility of the DKEFS in diagnosing ADHD in adult males. A sample of 37 adults with ADHD was compared to a community sample of equal size. Multivariate statistical analysis yielded significant group differences despite intellectual advantage by the study group. In addition, analysis of individual measures revealed patterns which were not initially predicted based upon current theories of ADHD. Overall, however, no clinically significant impairments emerged, as defined by scores at least one standard deviation below the mean. These findings and potential clinical implications are discussed with recommendations for future research.

Kaplan turbines are a type of hydropower turbine with adjustable runner blades. This allows the turbine to alter its power output while maintaining a relatively high efficiency over a wide range of power levels. But these frequent blade angel adjustments exposes the turbines internal mechanism to wear and the possibility of fatigue failure. A Kaplan turbine, and the regulating mechanism inside it, usually has an expected service life, but depending on how the turbine is operated its actual lifespan could potentially either exceed or fall short of this expected service life. The objective of this thesis was to create a tool to evaluate the fatigue damage and fatigue life of the components in the Kaplan runner's regulating mechanism. This thesis was mainly focused on two components that are found in practically all Kaplan runner regulating mechanism. One of these components is the "crank", which is the part that rotates with the runner blades, and on which the runner blades are often directly attached. The other component is the link, that attaches the cranks to the crosshead, which is the part that is moved with hydraulics axially inside the runner. The reason for this is that these components have been found to be among the most susceptible to fatigue damage in the regulating mechanism. The tool was realized in the form of a program with a graphical user interface. It was programmed in Matlab's AppDesigner, and has a direct connection to the OSIsoft PI database. This program lets the user enter dimensions of the mechanism's components manually, and reads data such as load and runner blade angle directly from PI. The program also features different options the user can select depending on the design of the mechanism's components. Load and angular data is retrieved from a selected time period. The program evaluates the fatigue life of the components using stress based fatigue evaluation. The stresses and stress concentrations in the components are calculated using mathematical formulas. Most of these formulas were gathered from literature, but a formula describing the stress concentration in the crank was experimentally developed during the thesis. This formula was developed based on FEM-simulations carried out in the program Ansys. The finished product is a program that relatively quickly lets the user evaluate the fatigue lifespan of the link and crank in a given turbine, based on measurement data and dimensions entered by the user. The program is computationally fast as it utilizes mathematical expressions to numerically calculate the maximum stresses in the components, instead of FEM-analysis. The program can be run on any computer a standalone program as it has been compiled to an executable file for ease of use.