Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Foundations'

The Social Economy sector (SE) is especially relevant because its entities have a social aim and they principally operate in areas not fully covered by either the market or the public sector. The number of SE organisations has increased significantly in the last decades and its importance is still growing at global, European and national scale. The high expectations of stakeholders towards the activity of these organizations have increased the transparency and accountability requirements of this sector's entities. Consequently, deficiency of transparency is considered a serious problem as it damages social trust in the organizations that belong to this sector. The objective of this thesis is to study the transparency level of foundations, a specific type of SE organizations, whose volume has significantly risen in the past decades. As a frame, the variety of coexisting registers in Spain and Europe were studied, as well as the evolution of the Spanish and Catalan regulations for foundations, which in recent years has undergone significant changes, especially due to the leading role that these institutions play in the economy. A database of 2,554 foundations from the Register of Catalonia, the largest in Spain, was used; information from the websites of 1,382 foundations, 54.11% of the total, was collected and analysed applying different statistical methodologies: bivariate, multivariate and logistic regression modelling, in order to find the drivers that influence the level of transparency of foundations. Conclusions indicate that this sector has a challenge to overcome: 45.89% of a total of 2,554 foundations do not have an active website, and in application of law 19/2014, in force from 1st July 2015, they should stop their activity. The main driver influencing the transparency level of foundations is the variable activity, being the healthcare activity the most influential. The variable province of Barcelona is more influential than the rest of Catalan provinces. However, there is not a conclusive effect of the variables decade of registration and regulation period. The methodology used to assess the degree of transparency can be extrapolated to other sectors (public or private). One possible future research field suggested is the study of the temporary evolution of the degree of transparency derived from the impact of legislation (law 19/2014).
Les organitzacions que formen part de la economia social (ES) s'han incrementat notablement en els últims anys. La importància d'aquestes entitats sense ànim de lucre, que realitzen la seva activitat entre el sector públic i el sector privat, es cada vegada més gran tant a nivell europeu com nacional. La tesis s'ha centrat en un tipus específic d'entitats no lucratives: las fundacions, les quals han augmentat marcadament en volum en la última dècada, i el seu grau de transparència. En la investigació s'ha realitzat l'estudi dels següents punts: (i) la diversitat del registres que coexisteixen a Espanya i Europa, caracteritzat per la falta d'homogeneïtat a l'hora de registrar- se com a fundació; (ii) l'estudi de l'evolució en matèria legislativa que regula aquest tipus d'entitats, que en els últims anys ha experimentat uns canvis significatius, especialmente per la importància que estan adquirint aquestes entitats en les economies dels països, sent necessari la seva regulació. En la part empírica, s'ha treballat amb una base de dades de 2.556 fundacions del Registre de Catalunya, que es el registre més nombrós de tota Espanya, realitzant: (iii) anàlisis descriptiu per la caracterització del sector fundacional a Catalunya; (iv) anàlisis del grau de transparència de les fundacions, a través de la informació de la seva web; (v) anàlisis estadístic per descobrir les diverses relacions, utilitzant diferents metodologies. Entre les conclusions destaca la diversitat en el grau de transparència de les fundacions. En un extrem, el 40% de les fundacions no disposen de web pública, i en el compliment de la llei 19/2014, hauran de cèsar la seva activitat. En l'altre extrem, entre els dos terços restants existeix un petit grup de fundacions que han creat un apartat específic en la seva web denominat transparència, en el que apareix totes les dades requerides en l'article 6 de la nova llei de transparència, amb aplicació a partir del 1 Juliol 2015. La principal limitació de l'estudi va ser la no existència d'un registre homogeni de les fundacions, en l'espera de la creació d'un comú per tota Europa o Espanya. Aquest ha estat un greu obstacle que impossibilitat l'estudi de la transparència de les fundacions a un nivell agregat superior. Encara que s'han identificat les principals errors en matèria de registre. L'estudi empíric ens ha proporcionat un ampli coneixement del comportament del sector. La Coordinadora Catalana de Fundacions tenen previst la publicació dels resultats de l'anàlisi descriptiu (caracterització del sector), ja que de forma periòdica, cada 7 anys ( any 2001 I 2008), realitzen aquest tipus d'estudi. En l'any 2015 es preveu la publicació de capítol 9 de la tesis, relatiu a l'evolució del sector fundacional a Catalunya, i el capítol 10, el seu contingut inclou l'impacte de la nova llei de transparència mitjançant l'anàlisi de les webs I les mesures correctores a recomanar a les fundacions per la millora de la seva transparència. Les conclusions indiquen que aquest sector té un repte a superar amb el 45,89% del total de 2.554 fundacions que no disposen de lloc web actiu, i en compliment de la llei 19/2014, amb aplicació a partir de l'1 Juliol 2015, haurien d'aturar la seva activitat. El principal factor que influeix en el grau. de transparència de les fundacions es la variable activitat principal, essent l'activitat assistencial la que més influeix. La variable província de Barcelona es la més influent respecte a la resta de províncies de Catalunya. No hi ha una influència concloent per a les variables dècada d'inscripció al registre i període legislatiu. La metodologia utilitzada per avaluar el grau de transparència és extrapolable a altres sectors (públic o privat). Una de les futures investigacions suggerides és l'evolució temporal del grau de transparència derivada de l'impacte de la legislació (llei 19/2014).
El sector de economía social (ES) es de especial importancia porque las entidades de este sector tienen un fin social y operan principalmente en áreas no plenamente cubiertas por el mercado o el sector público. El número de organizaciones que forman parte de la ES ha incrementado notablemente en las últimas décadas y su importancia es creciente a escala global, europea y nacional. Las mayores expectativas de las partes interesadas hacia la actividad de estas organizaciones han aumentado las exigencias de transparencia y rendición de las entidades de este sector. La deficiencia de transparencia es un grave problema pues daña la confianza social en las organizaciones de este sector. Esta tesis estudia el grado de transparencia en un tipo específico de entidades de ES: las fundaciones, las cuales han aumentado significativamente en las últimas décadas. Como marco de referencia se realizó el estudio de la diversidad de registros que coexisten en España y Europa y, por otra parte, la evolución de la legislación española y catalana que regula las fundaciones, que en los últimos años ha experimentado cambios significativos por la importancia que están adquiriendo estas entidades en la economía. En la parte empírica, se trabajó con una base de datos de 2.554 fundaciones del Registro de Cataluña, el más numeroso del estado español, para la caracterización del sector fundacional en Cataluña; se recogió la información de la web de 1.382 fundaciones (54,11% del total) y se analizaron los datos aplicando diferentes metodologías estadísticas: bivariante, multivariante y modelización mediante regresión logística, para hallar los principales factores que influyen en el grado de transparencia de las fundaciones. Las conclusiones indican que este sector tiene un reto por superar con el 45,89% del total de 2.554 fundaciones que no disponen de web activa, y en cumplimiento de la ley 19/2014, con aplicación a partir del 1 Julio 2015, deberían cesar su actividad. El principal factor que influye en el grado de transparencia de las fundaciones es la variable actividad principal, siendo la actividad asistencial la que más influye. La variable provincia de Barcelona es la más influyente respecto a las restantes provincias de Catalunya. No hay una influencia concluyente para las variables década de inscripción al registro y período legislativo. La metodología utilizada para evaluar el grado de transparencia es extrapolable a otros sectores (público o privado). Una de las futuras investigaciones sugeridas es la evolución temporal del grado de transparencia derivada del impacto de legislación (ley 19/2014).

Earthen dams and levees create high gradients and increased hydraulic pressures in the underlying soil, which can lead to erosion and other challenges. Karst formations and other defects such as cracks in the foundation and/or abutments can lead to failure mechanisms such as internal erosion. Generally these voids or cracks are filled with soil, but due to the increased pressures and gradients that dams and levees create, the original soil is pushed out, thus creating a void that acts as a conduit for more soil to follow. Different soils will erode at different rates and some even create a natural filter, preventing further erosion from occurring, but due to these increased gradients and the cyclic changes that can occur throughout the seasons these filters can be broken down, allowing for erosion to continue and potentially lead to complete failure of the structure unless certain reparatory measures are taken. In the lab we have simulated different conditions that exist in the field and the results of testing a variety of soils can be found in this paper.

People in all known cultures play games and today digital gaming is an important leisure activity for hundreds of millions of people. At the same time game design has developed into a profession of its own. There are several practical game design guidelines and text books but they rarely manage to connect their findings into relevant areas of research such as psychology and design research. Understanding game design, both as an activity and as an end result of that activity, in a more profound way could alleviate this problem. The main goals of this thesis are to understand in a more profound way how to design games and based on that understanding develop frameworks and methods for aiding game design. By extending knowledge about game design can not only improve the quality of the end-products but also expand the potential design space even in unpredictable ways. Game design contains many sub-areas. Character, story, and environment design are integral parts of the current game development projects. The aim of this thesis, however, is to have a critical and exploratory look at structures of gameplay as design material. Gameplay is the interaction between the game rules, challenges, elements, and players.In one sense gameplay defines the game. The focus of the thesis is mainly analytical, although parts of the results are based on practical research through design activities. The thesis contributes to game research in three interralated ways: (1) An analytical contribution to understanding gameplay was done in the gameplay design patterns work. The patterns are described as an approach to both analyse existing games and aid in designing new games. The patterns describe recurrent gameplay and also analyse these structures from the design material point of view. (2) A theoretical study of basis for gameplay experiences was conducted through review of relevant models and theories in neuroaesthetics, cognitive and social psychology and game research. The framework offered in the thesis explains why certain gameplay structures are more recurrent based on defining gameplay as caricatures of intentional behaviour. (3) The game design patterns approach and research through design projects have contributed to the analysis of game design as an activity and practical guidelines for concrete design work in more specific areas of game design. The goals of this thesis are ambitious and many questions are left unanswered. Using the patterns approach in conjunction with game design and ideation methods is still in its infancy. The concept of gameplay as caricatures of intentional behaviour should be explored further, especially in conjunction with other theories and frameworks relevant for understanding gameplay experience such as user engagement, immersion, and presence. Empirical experiments validating or falsifying this view on gameplay would be valuable as further contributions to game research.

leftovers, waste, and surplus generated by increasing production and consumption of material goods. Their problem is not new, and over the last decade the search for a solution has given rise to various theories about and technologies for resource recovery and waste management. In the fashion and clothing industry, designers have explored ways to reuse and remanufacture production and consumption waste and surplus before recycling material components on a fiber level, thereby aiming to realize greater environmental savings. While several examples of design practices building on different forms of reuse and remanufacturing approaches exist, foundational theoretical methods for design remain poorly researched.  This thesis explores and analyzes the aesthetic potential in textile and clothing waste and surplus for new design expressions and functions. Fashion design students performed initial methodological explorations through practicing redesign to find central concepts in design thinking that present opportunities and challenges for remake methods. The exploration shows a challenge to go from thinking fashion design as a method of remembering, preserving and showing, to remake fashion design as a method of forgetting, destroying and searching. In this thesis one method has so far been developed. However, the findings point to several methodological challenges in selecting and reworking materials within the context of the remake. These methods need to be explored and developed further to strengthen remake models and practices, and the central characteristic of traditional fashion design thinking needs to be developed further for a fundamental shift in thinking towards remake and redesign fashion design.

The advantages in terms of cost and safety of tolerably mobile foundations supporting subsea structures are agreed consistently in the offshore literature. Nonetheless, this technology is yet to be employed by industries due to concerns on the effects of environmental snag loads that may cause misalignments, loss of the functional configuration and eventually collapse of the structure. The technology that can be adopted to develop performances of tolerable mobility is the implementation of uni-directional foundation skirts. This technology is assessed by modelling skirted foundations under undrained conditions in the Abaqus software environment, a suite of simulation programs based on the finite element method. The main outputs being assessed are the upper bound of the dynamic resistance in the non-mobile direction, H_(x,ult), available to withstand environmental snag loads, and the static mobility performance ratio, H_(x,ult)/H_(y,ult), taken as an indicator of the displacement complaint behaviour. An extensive campaign including 185 three-dimensional finite element models has been designed in order to perform a sensitivity analysis to the following parameters: (i) number of uni-directional internal skirts, (ii) depth of foundation skirts, (iii) undrained soil strength heterogeneity of the soil, (iv) vertical eccentricity of horizontal loads. A comprehensive guidance on modelling geotechnical problems using the software Abaqus is also provided.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 7, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-134).

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the foundations of risk assessment. By exploring the polysemantics of basic concepts and their influence on the process and results of risk assessment, the thesis endeavors to clarify the words of risk assessment and promote reflection among practitioners and scholars. The findings are derived from integration and critique of pioneering and state of the art literature. Risk is a characteristic of the future concerning the uncertain consequences of decisions and contingencies. Understanding risk urges contemplation on fundamental issues of ontology (is risk a real-world property?) and epistemology (what can we know about risk?). The many-faceted concept has been differently interpreted across time, cultures and disciplines. Numerous definitions coexist in dissonance and concordance, caricaturing risk singly or as a combination of events, consequences, probability or uncertainty. The quantitative definition of Kaplan and Garrick (1981) embeds all elements, defining risk as the answer to three questions: 1) What can happen? 2) How likely is it? 3) If it does happen, what are the consequences? In comparison with contending definitions, this triplet definition gains in comprehensibility and relevancy to risk assessment. The defining questions are, however, very capacious and render significant interpretative freedom. Focal to this study is the first question, whose associated terminology is particularly vague and on which focused discussions remain most disturbingly few. An alternative means for grasping the concept of risk is to examine its related counterconcepts. Uncertainty not only makes a central component of risk, it also has a complementary meaning as lack of confidence in the results of risk analysis. Safety is often conceived as freedom from unacceptable risk or the antonym of risk. The conceptually sensitive coupling between risk and safety reveals that the rightness of this claim depends on whether uncertainty is considered part of the second question of Kaplan and Garrick (1981). Security is the equivalent of safety in situations of intentional harm. The moral and analytical complexities of security outdo those of safety since the first question becomes how someone can make something happen. Vulnerability is the lacking ability of a system to resist the impact of an unwanted event and to restore to its original function. The relation between risk and vulnerability is not commutative. A counterconcept to vulnerability is resilience, meaning a system’s ability to bounce back to a reference state after a disturbance. Complementing the negatively connoted concept of risk with resilience offers a positive perspective for mastering the dynamics of future uncertainties. Risk analysis is the process of answering the triplet definition of risk, whereas risk assessment refers to the wider process of risk analysis and risk evaluation. Neither the analytical process nor its results should be considered in isolation from the purpose of risk assessment, which is to inform decision making about risk. Decisions shall be risk-informed, not risk-based, meaning that risk assessment is never the sole input to decisions. The plurality of stakeholders and the prevalence of uncertainties represent two major challenges to risk-informed decision making. Framing analysis by deliberation and informing deliberation by analysis presupposes that decision makers understand the words and results of risk assessment. Hazard is a source of potential harm. Whereas risk pivots on the future realizationof this potential, hazard exists presently and solely at the source. Closely relatedis the concept of threat, which is conceptually reserved to sources of intentionaldamage. There is a plethora of terms marking the intersection between preventionand mitigation in the realization of a hazardous potential. Hazardous event is promoted as the least ambiguous denotation, defined as an event confined to the firstsignificant release of a hazards that will result in harmful exposure if not controlled.Triggering event and safety issues are promising concepts for bridging hazards andhazardous events. Triggering events are the most immediate causes of hazardousevents, while safety issues are one or more hazards in combination with local triggeringevents. Both concepts reflect the calculability and controllability of risk andshould thus be used with caution. Accident scenario is promoted as the answer to the question of what can go wrong. It is a uniquely defined path in an event tree, confined by an initiating event and a corresponding end state. Unfortunately, both the concept itself and the terms that confine are circularly defined. Initiating event is a vague descriptor that in principle can be placed anywhere in the bowtie-diagram. End states are pragmatically conditioned on the purpose of analysis; implicitly through the selection of consequences and explicitly in the relevancy of pivotal events. A principal advice is that any accident scenario shall be terminated in the absence of discrete ramifications.Contrasting the scenario approach to risk assessment with the conventional approach in Norway shows that accident scenario is not imperative to the triplet definition of risk. A revised definition of accident scenario is suggested in initiative to further discussion: An accident scenario is a sequence of events from the hazardous event to a uniquely determined end state of relevance. The study has demonstrated the importance of striving for a clear and consistent terminology. Researchers, practitioners and regulators use the words of risk assessment differently and inconsistently. Not only does this preclude communication internally and across analysis teams, it also leads to erroneous applications of methods and inexpedient use of results. This urges terminological vigilance of every practitioner, as well as further academic and standardization efforts towards aunifying nomenclature. A key challenge is to reconcile the analyst’s need for pragmatic procedures with the decision maker’s call for consistent and communicable results. Ultimately, this is a matter of finding the optimal fit between analysis and deliberation in risk-informed decision making.

To acquire their local culture, infants must identify good cultural models to learn from. Doing so successfully requires learners to evaluate others’ qualities as potential knowledge sources. The following body of research examines how the youngest humans identify good sources of conventional behaviours—a domain of cultural knowledge that lacks inherent properties for evaluation. Chapter 2 examines infants’ preferences for individuals who performed a consensus action vs. an oft-­‐repeated action. Results revealed that preverbal infants are capable of making complex, context-­‐dependent evaluations, favouring conformists when the targets’ prior knowledge cannot be assumed, and preferring mavericks when it can. Chapter 3 extends these results by showing that preschool aged children use some of these same cues to identify who may be good to learn from. Chapter 4 investigates infants’ use of observed emotional communications to choose between social and asocial targets. Cultural and domain differences were found for 12 month old infants: target preferences were influenced by emotional reactions directed at social targets, but not by emotional reactions directed at asocial targets. A differential response to positive and negative emotional reaction only reliably affected European Canadian infants’ choices, but not East Asian infants, nor European and East Asian mixed infants. Chapter 5 investigated how parents convey evaluative messages about objects during interactions with infants, and explored cultural differences in these pedagogical interactions. Results hint at cultural differences in the amount of valence congruent utterances caregivers make, resulting in differential experience with emotional communications as a means of learning about the world.
Arts, Faculty of
Psychology, Department of
Graduate

This thesis is an examination of the foundations of practical reason. Building on the later work of Wittgenstein, I argue for a subjectivist view of moral judgment and of judgments about reasons for action. On this view, moral judgments and judgments about reasons for action can be true or false, but they are not objective. The argument for this view has the form of an inference to the best explanation. Using a distinction between primary and secondary qualities, I suggest that moral judgments and judgments about reasons for action should not be construed as referring to an ethical or normative reality that exists independently of us. There are ethical facts and facts about our reasons, but these facts arise as the result of our involvement in a linguistic practice. This provides a new way of accounting for these judgments that differs both from moral realism and expressivism. The view of reasons that emerges is closely related to, but not identical with, reasons internalism as described by Bernard Williams. I reject his argument in favour of internalism and provide a new and independent argument to support this view of our reasons. In the course of spelling out that argument, I show why internalism as described by Williams should be modified, and why this does not commit us to externalism. In the final chapters, I show that there is an important parallel between our practical predicament and the account of our epistemic condition as portrayed by Wittgenstein. The inference to the best explanation is completed by considering a number of objections to subjectivism that are based on the idea that a subjectivist account of moral judgment and of reasons fails to do justice to the ethical phenomena. I reject these objections, and suggest that a subjectivist can both be reflectively aware of his subjectivism and continue to live well.

We study the motivation and groundwork for the construction of a Light-Shell Effective Theory, an effective field theory for describing the matter emerging from high-energy collisions and the accompanying radiation. We begin in chapter 2 with a simple electrodynamics calculation to motivate the picture of the ``light-shell," in which all electric and magnetic fields lie on a spherical shell that moves outward at the speed of light. The result turns out to do more than motivate, as it also hints at an important feature of the theory, namely the gauge in which we subsequently choose to do calculations, called Light-Shell Gauge.
Physics

In recent years, bridge foundations have been in the spotlight throughout the nation. Bridges built over running water are susceptible to erosion or scour around their foundations. The reduction in load capacity to piers and abutments pose a safety risk to highway motorists. It has become necessary for engineers to examine and monitor these "scour critical" bridges. The difficulty arises with subsurface foundations of which very little is known about their construction. Hence, the methods applied to analyzing "Unknown Foundations" have become a necessary topic of research. This thesis explores a method to determine foundation lengths. Similar to Sonic Echo / Impulse Response, this procedure measures reflected shock waves sent through concrete pilings. The technique is non-destructive in nature and is performed near the surface of the foundation. The test is performed on the side of the exposed piling. Current methods are limited by the fact that the tops of most pilings are inaccessible due to pilecaps or beams. Often times, pilings are embedded in stiff soils, which have a dampening effect on the stress waves. This thesis employs a method of analysis that will overcome such limitations and provide engineers with another tool to determine subsurface foundation lengths.

Research has been conducted into the fundamental mechanical properties of a granular material. This has involved the use of both a repeated load triaxial apparatus and a new hollow cylinder apparatus, which has required development and modification. Building on the foundation of earlier research at Nottingham, models have been developed which predict the stress-strain behaviour of a dry granular material under any combination of applied stresses. This includes repeatable elastic behaviour and the development of irrecoverable plastic strain. The accuracy of these models has been tested as far as possible using available test equipment. The effects of varying particle gradation, degree of compaction, maximum particle size and mineral type have been explored using a repeated load triaxial apparatus. The effect of moisture has also been investigated with respect to both full and partial saturation. A computer program (GRANMAT) has been written, which makes use of the stress-strain equations developed, to analyse a road pavement structure consisting of thin bituminous surfacing, granular base and subgrade. The reliability of the program has been assessed and areas of necessary improvement indicated. In-situ testing at a number of road sites is described and analysed with respect to both the effect of compaction on a granular road foundation and the use of a number of in-situ test devices. Finally, the information gained, in the laboratory and on site, is brought together in a series of design suggestions for granular road foundations, with particular reference to results from the GRANMAT computer program.

Book Summary: Secondary schools are continually faced with the task of preparing students for a world that is more connected, advanced, and globalized than ever before. In order to adequately prepare students for their future, educators must provide them with strong reading and writing skills, as well as the ability to understand scientific concepts. The Handbook of Research on Science Literacy Integration in Classroom Environments is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the importance of cross-curriculum/discipline connections in improving student understanding and education. While highlighting topics such as curriculum integration, online learning, and instructional coaching, this publication explores practices in teaching students how to analyze and interpret data, as well as reading, writing, and speaking. This book is ideally designed for teachers, graduate-level students, academicians, instructional designers, administrators, and education researchers seeking current research on science literacy adoption in contemporary classrooms.

This thesis is concerned with four different types of offshore foundations, namely gravity foundations, jack-up foundations, the mudmats for piled jacket structures and caisson foundations for jacket structures. In most applications, these can be idealised as circular rigid foundations. Unlike onshore foundations, offshore foundations are subjected to large horizontal and moment loads. This research used the finite element method to examine the elastic behaviour and stability of circular footings under combined loading. Due to the circular shape of the footings and the combination of vertical, horizontal and moment loads, three dimensional finite element analysis was used. In-depth analyses of the elastic behaviour of circular footings under combined loading (V,H,M) were performed. The vertical stiffness coefficient was investigated using two dimensional axi-symmetric analyses whereas three dimensional analyses were used to examine the other coefficients. Different features of offshore foundations such as footing embedment and cone angle were taken into consideration. Based on the numerical results, a set of empirical expressions for elastic stiffness coefficient was derived. For footing stability calculations, large horizontal or moment loads can cause the footing to lose contact with the soil, or cause the footing to slide relative to the soil. In finite element analyses, this loss of contact and sliding are modelled by interface elements. A new zero-thickness iso-parametric interface element was formulated for both two and three dimensional analyses. An exact close formed solution for integration of the stress-strain relationship (for the two dimensional interface element) was found. The element is then used to explore footing stability. It was shown that by using a yield criteria which allows the interface to behave as either frictional or cohesive interface, depending upon the normal stress, numerical stability is achieved. The footing stability was examined by establishing the bearing capacity envelope. The envelopes for footings on undrained clays were established for surface flat strip footings and for surface flat circular footings. The effects of soil strength varying with depth, cone angle and embedment on the bearing capacity envelope were also investigated.

Suction caissons are a new foundation option for offshore wind turbines. This thesis is focussed on the behaviour of suction caisson foundations in sand and in clay during installation, and under subsequent vertical and combined moment-lateral loadings. The research is based on extensive experimental work carried out using model scaled caissons. The analysis of the results allowed the determination of parameters for hyperplasticity models. Model caissons were vertically loaded in loose and dense sands to study in service states and plastic behaviour. Bearing capacity increased with the length of the caisson skirt. The bearing capacity formulation showed that the angle of friction mobilised was close to the critical state value for loose sands and close to those of peak values due to dilation for dense sands. The vertical load increased, though at a lower rate than during initial penetration, after large plastic displacements occurred. A hardening law formulation including this observed behaviour is suggested. In sand the installation of caissons by suction showed a drastic reduction in the net vertical load required to penetrate the caisson into the ground compared with that required to install caissons by pushing. This occurred due to the hydraulic gradients created by the suction. The theoretical formulations of the yield surface and flow rule were calibrated from the results of moment loading tests under low constant vertical loads. The fact that caissons exhibit moment capacity under tension loads was considered in the yield surface formulation. Results from symmetric and non symmetric cyclic moment loading tests showed that Masing’s rules were obeyed. Fully drained conditions, partially drained and undrained conditions were studied. Caisson rotation velocities scaled in the laboratory to represent those in the field induced undrained response for relevant periods of wave loading, a wide range of seabed permeabilities and prototype caisson dimensions. Under undrained conditions and low constant vertical loads the moment capacity of suction caissons was very small. Under partially drained conditions the moment capacity decreased with the increase of excess pore pressure. In clay, vertical cyclic loading around a mean vertical load of zero showed that in the short term the negative excess pore pressures generated during suction installation reduced vertical displacements. The yield surface and the flow rule were determined from moment swipe and constant vertical load tests. The moment capacity was found to depend on the ratio between the preload Vo and the ultimate bearing capacity Vu. Gapping response was observed during cyclic moment loading tests, but starting at smaller normalised rotations than in the field. The hysteresis loop shape obtained during gapping cannot be reproduced by means of the Masing’s rules.

Wave loading on offshore structures founded on sand can result in partially drained response of the foundation soil. The characteristics of the rate of loading, the permeability of the soil, and the size of the foundation affect the degree of partial drainage. Partial drainage refers to situations where pore pressures develop in the soil, and the response of the soil is neither fully drained nor undrained. This thesis is concerned with the effects of loading rate, and consequent drainage, on the behaviour of a flat footing that is founded on the surface of a saturated sand base. The results of physical tests performed in the laboratory on a model-sized footing are reported. The footing was founded on oil-saturated fine sand and was subjected to combined loading. The effect of the vertical, horizontal, and rotational displacements are reported. The response of the footing is analysed in the context of existing drained foundation models that are based on work hardening plasticity theory. The rate dependency of the vertical load:deformation behaviour and the combined yield surfaces are described.

Shallow foundations can provide the most economical solution for supporting small-scale structures. The design approach is quite simple considering the ultimate bearing capacity and working-load settlement. Research has shown that settlement calculations, determined using a linear-elastic approach, usually govern the design but this approach is inappropriate because soil is highly non-linear, even at small strains. The result is that signifi cant discrepancies are observed between predicted and actual settlements. This uncertainty has seen the development of settlement-based approaches such as Mobilisable Strength Design (MSD). MSD uses an assumed undrained mechanism and accounts for soil non-linearity by scaling a triaxial stress-strain curve to make direct predictions of footing load-settlement behaviour. Centrifuge experiments were conducted to investigate the mechanisms governing the settlement of shallow circular foundations on clay and saturated sand models. Clay model tests were performed on soft or rm kaolin beds, depending on its pre-consolidation. Sand model tests were performed on relatively loose Hostun sand saturated with methyl-cellulose to slow consolidation. One-dimensional actuators were developed to apply footing loads through dead-weight or pneumatic loading. A Perspex window in the centrifuge package allowed digital images to be captured of a central cross-section, during and after footing loading. These were used to deduce soil displacements by Particle Image Velocimetry which were consistent with footing settlements measured directly. Deformation mechanisms are presented for undrained penetration, consolidation due to transient flow, as measured by pore pressure transducers, and creep. A technique was developed for discriminating consolidation settlements from the varying rates of short and long-term creep of clay models. Using MSD, a method for predicting the undrained penetration of a spread foundation on clay was proposed, using database results alone, which then provided estimates of creep and consolidation settlements that follow. The importance of the undrained penetration necessitated further investigation by using the observed undrained mechanism as the basis of an ellipsoidal cavity expansion model. An upper-bound energy approach was used to determine the load-settlement behaviour of circular shallow foundations on linear-elastic and non-linear clays, with yield defined using the von Mises' yield criterion. Linear-elastic soil results were consistent with those obtained from nite element analyses. The non-linear model, as described by a power-law, showed good agreement with both centrifuge experiment results and some real case histories. The single design curve developed through this model for normalised footing pressure and settlement could be used by practising engineers based on existing soil correlations or site investigations.

In pursuit of a just political order, Will Kymlicka has defended a liberal conception of multiculturalism. The persuasive appeal of his argument, like that of secular-liberalism more generally, is due to presenting liberalism as a neutral and universal political project. Utilizing Charles Taylor’s genealogy of ‘exclusive humanism’ in A Secular Age, this thesis attempts to re-read Kymlicka in order to make certain theological commitments in his work explicit. Here I argue that Kymlicka, in order to make his conception of multiculturalism plausible, relies on a theologically-thick and controversial humanism operating under secular conditions of belief. By committing himself to a particular conception of the human and specific conditions of belief, Kymlicka’s liberal multiculturalism is rendered provincially incoherent because it fails to treat in a neutral manner certain theological commitments.

Chad Hansen’s interpretations of Warring States (475 B.C. – 221 B.C.) Chinese logic have long dominated the field. While Hansen has had his critics, there has been a general acceptance of many of his important contributions. In addition, the development and criticism of his interpretations have generally tended to create further confusion over the key philosophical concepts in Chinese logic. Among Hansen’s many contributions to the field of Chinese logic a few are foundational to the study of logic: one, that Chinese thought has no concept of truth; two, that Classical Chinese nouns are analogous to mass nouns in English; three, that, because Chinese philosophy is nominalistic, it has no role for abstract theories like essences, Platonic forms, or ideas; four, that Chinese ontology is mereological and without a concept of membership or class. Using Hansen’s body of work this thesis provides a critical reexamination of the foundations of Chinese logic. It ultimately demonstrates that, contrary to Hansen’s theories, Chinese thought can be plausibly interpreted to have the following characteristics: first, there is a concept of truth that may be identified as a ‘naïve correspondence theory of truth’ in Later Mohist thought; second, nouns in Classical Chinese are neither mass nouns nor count nouns; third, some concept of ‘essence’ plays an important role in Xunzi’s thought; and, fourth, that Chinese thought, in general, has a notion of class and class membership. These conclusions are demonstrated by using a dual methodology of pluralism and embodied cognition to interpret key claims by important Warring States thinkers.

Machine learning has risen in importance across science, engineering, and business in recent years. Domain experts have begun to understand how their data analysis problems can be solved in a principled and efficient manner using methods from machine learning, with its simultaneous focus on statistical and computational concerns. Moreover, the data in many of these application domains has exploded in availability and scale, further underscoring the need for algorithms which find patterns and trends quickly and correctly. However, most people actually analyzing data today operate far from the expert level. Available statistical libraries and even textbooks contain only a finite sample of the possibilities afforded by the underlying mathematical principles. Ideally, practitioners should be able to do what machine learning experts can do--employ the fundamental principles to experiment with the practically infinite number of possible customized statistical models as well as alternative algorithms for solving them, including advanced techniques for handling massive datasets. This would lead to more accurate models, the ability in some cases to analyze data that was previously intractable, and, if the experimentation can be greatly accelerated, huge gains in human productivity. Fixing this state of affairs involves mechanizing and automating these statistical and algorithmic principles. This task has received little attention because we lack a suitable syntactic representation that is capable of specifying machine learning problems and solutions, so there is no way to encode the principles in question, which are themselves a mapping between problem and solution. This work focuses on providing the foundational layer for enabling this vision, with the thesis that such a representation is possible. We demonstrate the thesis by defining a syntactic representation of machine learning that is expressive, promotes correctness, and enables the mechanization of a wide variety of useful solution principles.

This thesis consists of a selection of my papers, with a linking narrative. The aim of the narrative is to bring out the lines of inquiry in the papers more clearly. to provide foundations for a 'humanist informatics'. While the discipline of informatics has generally been geared towards technical or abstract representation, technological innovation, and technocratic control, a humanist informatics would focus instead on how information is produced and used by humans, and on how humans experience information and information technologies in their lives. The research method has been to review the papers and categorise them into four main themes, and from an initial analysis produce an outline argument consistent with the development of a humanist informatics. A more detailed treatment of a representative subset of papers then follows, and is combined with supporting but independent analyses of humanism and informatics, to produce a fuller account of the bases for a humanist informatics. Of the many available strands of humanism, the approach brought out here, combining existential and civic varieties, identifies the human being as at the same time an individual creature and a member of society. The analysis identifies some key characteristics for a humanist informatics, including these: • lnformatics must have at its centre a study of information, not as objective material, but in terms of how it is produced and used by human beings. • Suitable methodologies are needed to explore and describe people's lived experience of information and information technologies. • The processes by which information is produced and used should be discovered empirically. From a humanist perspective, experimentation and discovery are more fundamental than design, coherence is achieved through narrative and communication rather than by system design, and tactics have a larger part to play than strategies. • A humanist informatics should include study of wider and longer term issues in the production and use of information, and any generally deleterious impacts of the increasing power and reach of information technologies should be resisted. 1

The theory of dependently sorted first order logic is developed. Two variants of the notion of a type setup, an abstract characterisation of language with dependent sorts proposed by Peter Aczel, are presented. It is argued that specialisations of these are appropriate for the characterisation of a notion of intuitionistic or classical dependently sorted first order theory and of semantic structure for the interpretation of those theories.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Joyal and Street developed a graphical notation for various flavours of monoidal category using graphs drawn in the plane, commonly known as string diagrams. In particular, their work comprised a rigorous topological foundation of the notation. In 2007, Harmer, Hyland and Melliès gave a formal mathematical foundation for game semantics using a notions they called ⊸-schedules, ⊗-schedules and heaps. Schedules described interleavings of plays in games formed using ⊸ and ⊗, and heaps provided pointers used for backtracking. Their definitions were combinatorial in nature, but researchers often draw certain pictures when working in practice. In this thesis, we extend the framework of Joyal and Street to give a formal account of the graphical methods already informally employed by researchers in game semantics. We give a geometric formulation of ⊸-schedules and ⊗-schedules, and prove that the games they describe are isomorphic to those described in Harmer et al.’s terms, and also those given by a more general graphical representation of interleaving across games of multiple components. We further illustrate the value of the geometric methods by demonstrating that several proofs of key properties (such as that the composition of ⊸-schedules is associative) can be made straightforward, reflecting the geometry of the plane, and overstepping some of the cumbersome combinatorial detail of proofs in Harmer et al.’s terms. We further extend the framework of formal plane diagrams to account for the heaps and pointer structures used in the backtracking functors for O and P.

Abstraction is an important driving force in theoretical physics. New insights often accompany the creation of physical frameworks which are both comprehensive and parsimonious. In particular, the analysis of alternative sets of theories which exhibit similar structural features as quantum theory has yielded important new results and physical understanding. An important task is to undertake a thorough analysis and classification of quantum-like theories. In this thesis, we take a step in this direction, moving towards a synthetic description of alternative theories in quantum foundations. After a brief philosophical introduction, we give a presentation of the mathematical concepts underpinning the foundations of physics, followed by an introduction to the foundations of quantum mechanics. The core of the thesis consists of three results chapters based on the articles in the author’s publications page. Chapter 4 analyses the logic of stabilizer quantum mechanics and provides a complete set of circuit equations for this sub-theory of quantum mechanics. Chapter 5 describes how quantum-like theories can be classified in a periodic table of theories. A pictorial calculus for alternative physical theories, called the ZX calculus for qudits, is then introduced and used as a tool to depict particular examples of quantum-like theories, including qudit stabilizer quantum mechanics and the SpekkensSchreiber toy theory. Chapter 6 presents an alternative set of quantum-like theories, called quantum collapse models. A novel quantum collapse model, where the rate of collapse depends on the Quantum Integrated Information of a physical system, is introduced and discussed in some detail. We then conclude with a brief summary of the main results.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1986.
MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING
Bibliography: leaves 261-266.
by Louis Anthony Cox, Jr.
Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
Physicians must often diagnose their patients using disease archetypes that are based on symptoms as opposed to underlying pathophysiology. The growing concept of "precision medicine" addresses this challenge by recognizing the vast yet fractured state of biomedical data, and calls for a patient-centered view of data in which molecular, clinical, and environmental measurements are stored in large shareable databases. Such efforts have already enabled large-scale knowledge advancement, but they also risk enabling large-scale misuse. In this thesis, I explore several statistical opportunities and challenges central to clinical decision-making and knowledge advancement with these resources. I use the inherited heart disease hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) to illustrate these concepts. HCM has proven tractable to genomic sequencing, which guides risk stratification for family members and tailors therapy for some patients. However, these benefits carry risks. I show how genomic misclassifications can disproportionately affect African Americans, amplifying healthcare disparities. These findings highlight the value of diverse population sequencing data, which can prevent variant misclassifications by identifying ancestry informative yet clinically uninformative markers. As decision-making for the individual patient follows from knowledge discovery by the community, I introduce a new quantity called the "dataset positive predictive value" (dPPV) to quantify reproducibility when many research teams separately mine a shared dataset, a growing practice that mirrors genomic testing in scale but not synchrony. I address only a few of the many challenges of delivering sound interpretation of genetic variation in the clinic and the challenges of knowledge discovery with shared "big data." These examples nonetheless serve to illustrate the need for grounded statistical approaches to reliably use these powerful new resources.
by Arjun Kumar Manrai.
Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-78).
How do people think about things they can never see or touch? The ability to invent and reason about domains such as time, ideas, or mathematics is uniquely human, and is arguably the hallmark of human sophistication. Yet, how people mentally represent these abstract domains has remained one of the great mysteries of the mind. This dissertation explores a potential solution: perhaps the mind recruits old structures for new uses. Perhaps sensory and motor representations that result from physical interactions with the world (e.g., representations of physical space) are recycled to support our thinking about abstract phenomena. This hypothesis is motivated, in part, by patterns observed in language: in order to talk about abstract things, speakers often recruit metaphors from more concrete or perceptually rich domains. For example, English speakers often talk about time using spatial language (e.g., a long vacation; a short meeting). Cognitive linguists have argued such expressions reveal that people conceptualize abstract domains like time metaphorically, in terms of space. Although linguistic evidence for this Conceptual Metaphor Theory is abundant, the necessary nonlinguistic evidence has been elusive.
(cont.) In two series of experiments, I investigated whether mental representations that result from physical experience underlie people's more abstract mental representations, using the domains of space and :!I.:e as a testbed. New experimental tools were developed in order to evaluate Conceptual Metaphor Theory as an account of the evolution and structure of abstract concepts, and to explore relations between language and nonlinguistic thought. Hypotheses about the way people represent space and time were based on patterns in metaphorical language, but were tested using simple psychophysical tasks with nonlinguistic stimuli and responses. Results of the first set of experiments showed that English speakers incorporate irrelevant spatial information into their estimates of time (but not vice versa), suggesting that people not only talk about time using spatial language, but also think about time using spatial representations. The second set of experiments showed that (a) speakers of different languages rely on different spatial metaphors for duration, (b) the dominant metaphor in participants' first languages strongly predicts their performance on nonlinguistic time estimation tasks, and (c) training participants to use new spatiotemporal metaphors in language changes the way they estimate time.
(cont.) Together, these results demonstrate that the metaphorical language people use to describe abstract phenomena provides a window on their underlying mental representations, and also shapes those representations. The structure of abstract domains such as time appears to depend, in part, on both linguistic experience and on physical experience in perception and motor action.
by Daniel J. Casasanto.
Ph.D.

Graph pebbling modeling started as a method for solving a combinatorialnumber theory conjecture by Erdös and Lemke. Using thismethod, Chung proved the conjecture in 1989. Since then, the literaturehas grown considerably. Several variations and possible applicationshave been discussed, in graph theory, computer science andnetwork optimization. The main focus in graph pebbling is graphs, mathematical structuresmodeling binary relations between vertices. To every vertex insome graph we assign a number of pebbles. If two pebbles are movedacross an edge joining two distinct vertices, one pebble arrives andone pebble is lost. This is called a pebbling step. The basic question in graph pebbling asks if one may from a givendistribution of pebbles on a set of vertices move to another distributionon the same set via a series of pebbling steps. In this Master’s thesis we approach the above question using twomodels: a deterministic, which includes the notion of a pebblingnumber, and a probabilistic, which includes the notion of a threshold. For both these models we clarify earlier proofs, and provide newproofs, of foundational theorems in graph pebbling. These resultsconstitute the backbone for our discussion on recent research, whichconcentrates on generalizing and extending central notions in graphpebbling, for example the generalized idea of a pebbling number:the pi-pebbling function. Simultaneously, a corollary to the so calledcover pebbling theorem is derived. This corollary lets us prove established,and newly found, theorems. Regarding applications in graph pebbling, we argue that one shouldgeneralize existing results, and incorporate directed graphs into abigger part of the theory. We suggest how this can be done.

Min handledare, Cecilia Holmgren, var tidigare anställd vid Matematiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet, men arbetar numera vid Matematiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet.

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
Despite a significant increase in importance of the third sector in Europe, only little data is available of non-profit institutions like foundations and specifically their financial reporting. Therefore, this research analyzes the financial reporting by European foundations and draws conclusions concerning their approach in respective legal frameworks. Accounting standards and practices currently in use are compared and possible characteristics, relationships and patterns are investigated. The conclusion of this analysis confirms the lack of comparability, harmonization and standardization amongst European foundations. Existing reporting standards as well as legal frameworks differ within each country, making a comparison among European foundations very difficult.