The Space of Reasons and the Realm of Freedom

"The essential point�, according to Wilfrid Sellars, "is that in\ud characterizing an episode or a state as that of knowing, we\ud are not giving an empirical description of that episode or\ud state; we are placing it in the logical space of reasons, of\ud justifying and being able to justify what one says�. (Sellars\ud 1997, 76) The traditional empiricism maintains that all of\ud our knowledge rests basically on a foundation of truths\ud about sensory experience, assuming that sense data is the\ud junction at which external reality or the empirical world gets\ud in touch with the epistemic world. Even Quine"s attack on\ud the dogmas of empiricism does not call this presupposition\ud into question. What he pleads for is a holistic modification\ud of the dogma: "our statements about the external world\ud face the tribunal of sense experience not individually but\ud only as a corporate body� (Quine 1964, 41)

Probabilistic cellular automata with conserved quantities

We demonstrate that the concept of a conservation law can be naturally extended from deterministic to probabilistic cellular automata (PCA) rules. The local function for conservative PCA must satisfy conditions analogous to conservation conditions for deterministic cellular automata. Conservation condition for PCA can also be written in the form of a current conservation law. For deterministic nearest-neighbour CA the current can be computed exactly. Local structure approximation can partially predict the equilibrium current for non-deterministic cases. For linear segments of the fundamental diagram it actually produces exact results.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Air-conditioning system design for optimum control performance in Hong Kong

Studies on design for control optimization of air-conditioning (a/c) system for better performance in Hong Kong are reported in this thesis. Typical plant configuration data was collected from an in-depth survey of a/c systems and control used in Hong Kong. Control performance has been used for the first time as an objective for optimizing a/c system designs. The study investigates and illustrates that optimization of a/c systems for application in the Hong Kong by simulation is promising and flexible. The accuracy of simulation is enhanced by using the survey data. The survey shows that some a/c control systems and their control strategies are not well considered in the design stage and their operation and set-up are not properly addressed. Hence, there exists optimization opportunities in the a/c system design and control strategies for a/c systems used in Hong Kong. Parameters affecting the control performance of a/c systems were investigated by carrying out experiments. Identified parameters are the objective function of optimization, controller settings, control valve and drive and, in case of direct digital control, sampling rate. The influence of these factors on the control performance is an essential consideration for the entire optimization process. Strategies in applying the findings in optimizing an a/c system for control performance by simulation were developed and suggested. This study provides platform for further simulation study of optimization in both methodologies and control strategies for a/c system design and operation

Alien Registration- Fuk, Eric A. (Saint George, Knox County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/13420/thumbnail.jp

Global Digital Topographic Mapping With Spaceborne Radar Sensor

Global land topography is an essential data base required in a wide spectrum of geoscientific studies. Medium resolution (few hundred meters spatial, 10 meters height) data is needed in geophysical studies and topographic corrections of gravity measurements. High resolution (few tens of meters spatial and few meters height) data is an essential element in research and application areas such as geologic mapping, hydrologic modeling, engineering project planning and correction (radiometric and cartographic) of images acquired with multispectral and radar imagers