Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 1972. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

I argue that there are irreducibly non-propositional intentional states, mental states that are about things (states such as fearing snakes, liking ice-cream, and so on) but which do not have a propositional content. I provide a positive account of such states and offer philosophical insights concerning concepts and content that emerge once they are recognized. / text

There exist well-known varieties of implication, such as strict, intuitionist, three-valued and rigorous, which are non-classical in the sense of being more restrictive than material implication. But there exists also a type of implication, intuitively plausible, which is nonclassical not only in being more restrictive, but in satisfying certain theses which are classically false. These theses are exceedingly venerable, dating back to Aristotle and Boethius, but, despite their plausibility, have been generally rejected by logicians since. It has not been noticed, however, that in Sextus Empiricus reference is made to a species of Stoic implication which fits them perfectly. In this work formal recognition is given to this species of implication, known as connexive implication. It is shown that none of the well-known systems of prepositional logic is connexive, and a new system is accordingly constructed. A proof of consistency is given, and a number of problems posed for further investigation.

No description available.

This study was designed to examine the comprehension processes used when reading cancer information found on the Internet and its relation to readability. The focus of the research was on the utilization of an alternative methodology, propositional analysis, to provide indices of textual difficulty that complement standard readability formulas. Kintsch's (1998) framework about discourse comprehension was used to distinguish between textbase and situational factors influencing comprehension. <br /><br /> This study analysed the verbal protocols of 16 community dwelling older adults. They each read a pair of either breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer web pages at low and high readability levels. Propositional density and coherence were measured for the web pages; recall, concepts, inferences, and coherence were measured for the protocols. Coherence was also captured using network representations. The readability formulas used were the Flesch-Kincaid (F-K), Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and SMOG. Results showed that propositional density did not agree with readability scores, and that the readability formulas did not even produce consistent results among themselves. Results also showed that readability was not associated with web page coherence. Analysis of the protocols revealed marked individual differences for the kinds of information recalled, the types of inferences made, and the coherence of mental models. Variations in background and personal interest appeared to influence whether superordinate or subordinate propositions were recalled. Dependence on prompted versus non-prompted interview questions also varied by individual. <br /><br /> The findings of this study suggest that propositional analysis should be considered as a complementary methodology to readability formulas. Relying solely on these formulas as an indictor of comprehension may mislead online health providers that their information will be understood. The findings also highlight that that individual create distinct and personalized mental models when presented with web pages that are influenced by text and situation based factors.

by Mei Long. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-98). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Table of Contents --- p.v / Abstract --- p.viii / Acknowledgements --- p.x / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Satisfiability Problem --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Motivation of the Research --- p.1 / Chapter 1.3 --- Overview of the Thesis --- p.2 / Chapter 2 --- Satisfiability Problem --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Satisfiability Problem --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Basic Definition --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Phase Transitions --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- History --- p.6 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Basic Search Algorithm --- p.8 / Chapter 2.4 --- Some Improvements to the Basic Algorithm --- p.9 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Satz by Chu-Min Li --- p.9 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Heuristics and Local Search --- p.12 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Relaxation --- p.13 / Chapter 2.5 --- Benchmarks --- p.14 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- Specific Problems --- p.14 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Randomly Generated Problems --- p.14 / Chapter 2.6 --- Software and Internet Information for SAT solving --- p.16 / Chapter 2.6.1 --- Stochastic Local Search Algorithms (incomplete) --- p.16 / Chapter 2.6.2 --- Systematic Search Algorithms (complete) --- p.16 / Chapter 2.6.3 --- Some useful Links to SAT Related Sites --- p.17 / Chapter 3 --- Integer Programming Formulation for Logic Problem --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1 --- SAT Problem --- p.19 / Chapter 3.2 --- MAXSAT Problem --- p.19 / Chapter 3.3 --- Logical Inference Problem --- p.19 / Chapter 3.4 --- Weighted Exact Satisfiability Problem --- p.20 / Chapter 4 --- Integer Programming Formulation for SAT Problem --- p.22 / Chapter 4.1 --- From 3-CNF SAT Clauses to Zero-One IP Constraints --- p.22 / Chapter 4.2 --- Integer Programming Model for 3-SAT --- p.23 / Chapter 4.3 --- The Equivalence of the SAT and the IP --- p.23 / Chapter 4.4 --- Example --- p.24 / Chapter 5 --- Integer Solvability of Linear Programs --- p.27 / Chapter 5.1 --- Unimodularity --- p.27 / Chapter 5.2 --- Totally Unimodularity --- p.28 / Chapter 5.3 --- Some Results on Recognition of Linear Solvability of IP --- p.32 / Chapter 6 --- TU Based Matrix Research Results --- p.33 / Chapter 6.1 --- 2x2 Matrix's TU Property --- p.33 / Chapter 6.2 --- Extended Integer Programming Model for SAT --- p.34 / Chapter 6.3 --- 3x3 Matrix's TU Property --- p.35 / Chapter 7 --- Totally Unimodularity Based Branching-and-Bound Algorithm --- p.38 / Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.38 / Chapter 7.1.1 --- Enumeration Trees --- p.39 / Chapter 7.1.2 --- The Concept of Branch and Bound --- p.42 / Chapter 7.2 --- TU Based Branching Rule --- p.43 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- How to sort variables based on 2x2 submatrices --- p.43 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- How to sort the rest variables --- p.45 / Chapter 7.3 --- TU Based Bounding Rule --- p.46 / Chapter 7.4 --- TU Based Branch-and-Bound Algorithm --- p.47 / Chapter 7.5 --- Example --- p.49 / Chapter 8 --- Numerical Result --- p.57 / Chapter 8.1 --- Experimental Result --- p.57 / Chapter 8.2 --- Statistical Results of ILOG CPLEX --- p.59 / Chapter 9 --- Conclusions --- p.61 / Chapter 9.1 --- Contributions --- p.61 / Chapter 9.2 --- Future Work --- p.62 / Chapter A --- The Coefficient Matrix A for Example in Chapter 7 --- p.64 / Chapter B --- The Detailed Numerical Information of Solution Process for Exam- ple in Chapter 7 --- p.66 / Chapter C --- Experimental Result --- p.67 / Chapter C.1 --- "# of variables: 20, # of clauses: 91" --- p.67 / Chapter C.2 --- "# of variables: 50, # of clauses: 218" --- p.70 / Chapter C.3 --- # of variables: 75，# of clauses: 325 --- p.73 / Chapter C.4 --- "# of variables: 100, # of clauses: 430" --- p.76 / Chapter D --- Experimental Result of ILOG CPLEX --- p.80 / Chapter D.1 --- # of variables: 20´ة # of clauses: 91 --- p.80 / Chapter D.2 --- # of variables: 50，#of clauses: 218 --- p.83 / Chapter D.3 --- # of variables: 75，# of clauses: 325 --- p.86 / Chapter D.4 --- "# of variables: 100, # of clauses: 430" --- p.89 / Bibliography --- p.93

The constraint satisfaction problem is an NP-complete problem that provides a convenient framework for expressing many computationally hard problems. In addition, domain knowledge can be efficiently integrated into CSPs, providing a potentially exponential speedup in some cases. The CSP is closely related to the satisfiability problem and many of the techniques developed for one have been transferred to the other. However, the recent dramatic improvements in SAT solvers that result from learning clauses during search have not been transferred successfully to CSP solvers. In this thesis we propose that this failure is due to a fundamental restriction of \newtext{nogood learning, which is intended to be the analogous to clause learning in CSPs}. This restriction means that nogood learning can exhibit a superpolynomial slowdown compared to clause learning in some cases. We show that the restriction can be lifted, delivering promising results. Integration of nogood learning in a CSP solver, however, presents an additional challenge, as a large body of domain knowledge is typically encoded in the form of domain specific propagation algorithms called global constraints. Global constraints often completely eliminate the advantages of nogood learning. We demonstrate generic methods that partially alleviate the problem irrespective of the type of global constraint. We also show that more efficient methods can be integrated into specific global constraints and demonstrate the feasibility of this approach on several widely used global constraints.

The constraint satisfaction problem is an NP-complete problem that provides a convenient framework for expressing many computationally hard problems. In addition, domain knowledge can be efficiently integrated into CSPs, providing a potentially exponential speedup in some cases. The CSP is closely related to the satisfiability problem and many of the techniques developed for one have been transferred to the other. However, the recent dramatic improvements in SAT solvers that result from learning clauses during search have not been transferred successfully to CSP solvers. In this thesis we propose that this failure is due to a fundamental restriction of \newtext{nogood learning, which is intended to be the analogous to clause learning in CSPs}. This restriction means that nogood learning can exhibit a superpolynomial slowdown compared to clause learning in some cases. We show that the restriction can be lifted, delivering promising results. Integration of nogood learning in a CSP solver, however, presents an additional challenge, as a large body of domain knowledge is typically encoded in the form of domain specific propagation algorithms called global constraints. Global constraints often completely eliminate the advantages of nogood learning. We demonstrate generic methods that partially alleviate the problem irrespective of the type of global constraint. We also show that more efficient methods can be integrated into specific global constraints and demonstrate the feasibility of this approach on several widely used global constraints.

This study was designed to examine the comprehension processes used when reading cancer information found on the Internet and its relation to readability. The focus of the research was on the utilization of an alternative methodology, propositional analysis, to provide indices of textual difficulty that complement standard readability formulas. Kintsch's (1998) framework about discourse comprehension was used to distinguish between textbase and situational factors influencing comprehension. <br /><br /> This study analysed the verbal protocols of 16 community dwelling older adults. They each read a pair of either breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer web pages at low and high readability levels. Propositional density and coherence were measured for the web pages; recall, concepts, inferences, and coherence were measured for the protocols. Coherence was also captured using network representations. The readability formulas used were the Flesch-Kincaid (F-K), Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and SMOG. Results showed that propositional density did not agree with readability scores, and that the readability formulas did not even produce consistent results among themselves. Results also showed that readability was not associated with web page coherence. Analysis of the protocols revealed marked individual differences for the kinds of information recalled, the types of inferences made, and the coherence of mental models. Variations in background and personal interest appeared to influence whether superordinate or subordinate propositions were recalled. Dependence on prompted versus non-prompted interview questions also varied by individual. <br /><br /> The findings of this study suggest that propositional analysis should be considered as a complementary methodology to readability formulas. Relying solely on these formulas as an indictor of comprehension may mislead online health providers that their information will be understood. The findings also highlight that that individual create distinct and personalized mental models when presented with web pages that are influenced by text and situation based factors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 302-304).