Inherent safety has been recognized as a design approach useful to remove or reduce hazards at the source instead of controlling them with add-on protective barriers. However, inherent safety is based on qualitative principles that cannot easily be evaluated and analyzed, and this is one of the major difficulties for the systematic application and quantification of inherent safety in plant design. The present research introduces the use of fuzzy logic for the measurement of inherent safety by proposing a hierarchical fuzzy model. This dissertation establishes a novel conceptual framework for the analysis of inherent safety and proposes a methodology that addresses several of the limitations of the methodologies available for current inherent safety analysis. This research proposes a methodology based on a hierarchical fuzzy model that analyzes the interaction of variables relevant for inherent safety and process safety in general. The use of fuzzy logic is helpful for modeling uncertainty and subjectivities implied in evaluation of certain variables and it is helpful for combining quantitative data with qualitative information. Fuzzy logic offers the advantage of being able to model numerical and heuristic expert knowledge by using fuzzy IF-THEN rules. Safety is traditionally considered a subjective issue because of the high uncertainty associated with its significant descriptors and parameters; however, this research recognizes that rather than subjective, "safety" is a vague problem. Vagueness derives from the fact that it is not possible to define sharp boundaries between safe and unsafe states; therefore the problem is a "matter of degree". The proposed method is computer-based and process simulator-oriented in order to reduce the time and expertise required for the analysis. It is expected that in the future, by linking the present approach to a process simulator, process engineers can develop safety analysis during the early stages of the design in a rapid and systematic way. Another important aspect of inherent safety, rarely addressed, is transportation of chemical substances; this dissertation includes the analysis of transportation hazard by truck using a fuzzy logic-based approach.

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As the level of integrated circuit (IC) complexity continues to increase, the post-silicon validation stage is becoming a large component of the overall development cost. To address this, we propose a reconfigurable post-silicon debug infrastructure that enhances the post-silicon validation process by enabling the observation and control of signals that are internal to the manufactured device. The infrastructure is composed of dedicated programmable logic and programmable access networks. Our reconfigurable infrastructure enables not only the diagnoses of bugs; it also allows the detection and potential correction of errors in normal operation. In this thesis we describe the architecture, implementation and operation of our new infrastructure. Furthermore, we identify and address three key challenges arising from the implementation of this infrastructure. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to implement an effective reconfigurable post-silicon infrastructure that is able to observe and control circuits operating at full speed, with an area overhead of between 5% and 10% for many of our target ICs.

No description available.

In this dissertation, we propose area-efficient Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) processor designs by applying four new common-subexpression-elimination (CSE) algorithms to the sub-functions that realize the various transformations in AES encryption and decryption. The first category of sub-functions is derived by combining adjacent transformations in each AES round into a new transformation. The other category of sub-functions is from the integrated transformations in the AES encryption and decryption process with shared common operations. Then the proposed bit-level CSE algorithm reduces further the area cost of realizing the sub-functions by extracting the common factors in the bit-level expressions of these sub-functions. The separate area-reduction effects of combinations, integrations and CSE optimization mentioned above are analyzed in order to examine the efficiency of each technique. Cell-based implementation results show that the area reduction rates of the AES processors with our proposed CSE methods achieve significant area improvement compared with Synopsys optimization results.

Inherent safety has been recognized as a design approach useful to remove or reduce hazards at the source instead of controlling them with add-on protective barriers. However, inherent safety is based on qualitative principles that cannot easily be evaluated and analyzed, and this is one of the major difficulties for the systematic application and quantification of inherent safety in plant design. The present research introduces the use of fuzzy logic for the measurement of inherent safety by proposing a hierarchical fuzzy model. This dissertation establishes a novel conceptual framework for the analysis of inherent safety and proposes a methodology that addresses several of the limitations of the methodologies available for current inherent safety analysis. This research proposes a methodology based on a hierarchical fuzzy model that analyzes the interaction of variables relevant for inherent safety and process safety in general. The use of fuzzy logic is helpful for modeling uncertainty and subjectivities implied in evaluation of certain variables and it is helpful for combining quantitative data with qualitative information. Fuzzy logic offers the advantage of being able to model numerical and heuristic expert knowledge by using fuzzy IF-THEN rules. Safety is traditionally considered a subjective issue because of the high uncertainty associated with its significant descriptors and parameters; however, this research recognizes that rather than subjective, "safety" is a vague problem. Vagueness derives from the fact that it is not possible to define sharp boundaries between safe and unsafe states; therefore the problem is a "matter of degree". The proposed method is computer-based and process simulator-oriented in order to reduce the time and expertise required for the analysis. It is expected that in the future, by linking the present approach to a process simulator, process engineers can develop safety analysis during the early stages of the design in a rapid and systematic way. Another important aspect of inherent safety, rarely addressed, is transportation of chemical substances; this dissertation includes the analysis of transportation hazard by truck using a fuzzy logic-based approach.

Modal logics with possible worlds semantics can be used to represent mental states such as belief, goal, and intention, allowing one to formally describe the rational behavior of agents. Agent??s beliefs and goals are typically represented in these logics by primitive modal operators. However, the representation of agent??s intentions varies greatly between theories. Some logics characterize intention as a primitive operator, while others define intention in terms of more primitive constructs. Taking the latter approach is a theory due to Philip Cohen and Hector Levesque, under which intentions are a special form of commitment or persistent goal. The theory has motivated theories of speech acts and joint intention and innovative applications in multiagent systems and industrial robotics. However, Munindar Singh shows the theory to have certain logical inconsistencies and permit certain absurd scenarios. This thesis presents a modification of the theory that preserves the desirable aspects of the original while addressing the criticism of Singh. This is achieved by the introduction of an additional operator describing the achievement of expectations, refined assumptions, and new defi- nitions of intention. The modified theory gives a cogent account of the rational balance between agents?? action and deliberation, and suggests the use of meansends reasoning in agent implementations. A rule-based reasoner in Jess facilitates evaluation of the predictiveness and intuitiveness of the theory, and provides a prototypical agent based on the theory.

During the 20th century, John Dewey introduced a new idea with respect to the nature of logical theory: He presented a portrait of logic as a theory about how organisms interact and maintain an integrated balance between themselves and their environment. He wrote many texts on what he called his theory of inquiry, including Essays in Experimental Logic (1916), Studies in Logical Theory (1903), and How We Think (1910). However, the book where he most closely detailed his theory of inquiry is in his Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938). These texts by Dewey have served as the source for much recent discussion and commentary in Dewey scholarship. Most of these interpretations on Dewey’s theory of inquiry, I maintain, misunderstand Dewey in some fundamental way. I argue that these commentators have gone wrong in interpreting Dewey and his works by failing to understand some aspect of his theory of inquiry. I illustrate the flaws in their interpretations and subsequently integrate the conclusions I reach into a single, cohesive perspective on Dewey’s account of inquiry. The final chapter presents a new interpretation of Dewey that emphasizes the role of phenomenal, contextual, and social factors in the foundations of his logical works.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-130). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 252 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-251).