Davidson's no-priority thesis in defending the Turing Test

Turing does not provide an explanation for substituting the original question of his test – i.e., “Can machines think?” with “Can a machine pass the imitation game?” – resulting in an argumentative gap in his main thesis. In this article, I argue that a positive answer to the second question would mean attributing the ability of linguistic interactions to machines; while a positive answer to the original question would mean attributing the ability of thinking to machines. In such a situation, defending the Turing Test requires establishing a relationship between thought and language. In this regard, Davidson's no-priority theory is presented as an approach for defending the test

Optimization of insulation thickness of external walls of residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter zone of China

It is important to reduce primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with residential buildings in the hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) zone of China. Changing the insulation thickness of the external walls of residential buildings (ITEWB) is regarded as an effective way to manage such problems within a budget. This paper aims at developing an innovative way to select the optimal insulation thickness of external walls for residential buildings (OTWRB) in the HSCW zone of China, considering economic, energy and greenhouse gas emissions issues associated with the ITEWB. Four different cities and two different operation modes of the air conditioners (continuous and intermittent) are considered in this study. To explain the selection process, typical hypothetical buildings are simulated in Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou and Chengdu. Expanded polystyrene is chosen as the material of the insulation layer while split air conditioners are selected as the equipment for space heating and cooling. Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment is used for the dynamic operational energy consumption of buildings. Life cycle cost method is adopted to calculate the economic impact of ITEWB on building performance. The Chinese life cycle database is used to quantize the impacts of ITEWB on building performance in the aspect of energy and greenhouse gas emissions based on the life cycle theory. The most appreciated insulation thickness is chosen from the thickness range of 30 mm to 150 mm. We find that for continuous operation mode of air conditioners in Wuhan, the optimal economic insulation thickness is 70 mm, whereas when considering only energy and environmental aspects, the OTWRB is 150 mm. These are all larger than the current insulation thickness which is 30 mm. When the weighting efficiencies of the economy, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions are different, the OTWRB varies from 70 mm to 150 mm for continuous operation mode. The different cities have little influence on the OTWRB while the different operation modes of air conditioners have some influence on the OTWRB

Demand for money in Iran: An ARDL approach

The objective of this study is to estimate the demand for money in Iran using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration analysis. The empirical results show that there is a unique cointegrated and stable long-run relationship among M1 monetary aggregate, income, inflation and exchange rate. We find that the income elasticity and exchange rate coefficient are positive while the inflation elasticity is negative. This indicates that depreciation of domestic currency increases the demand for money, supporting the wealth effect argument and people prefer to substitute physical assets for money balances that are supporting our theoretical expectation. Our results also after incorporating the CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests reveal that the M1 money demand function is stable between 1985 and 2006.Money demand; ARDL; Stability; Iran

A Middleware for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects everyday objects including a vast array of sensors, actuators, and smart devices, referred to as things to the Internet, in an intelligent and pervasive fashion. This connectivity gives rise to the possibility of using the tracking capabilities of things to impinge on the location privacy of users. Most of the existing management and location privacy protection solutions do not consider the low-cost and low-power requirements of things, or, they do not account for the heterogeneity, scalability, or autonomy of communications supported in the IoT. Moreover, these traditional solutions do not consider the case where a user wishes to control the granularity of the disclosed information based on the context of their use (e.g. based on the time or the current location of the user). To fill this gap, a middleware, referred to as the Internet of Things Management Platform (IoT-MP) is proposed in this paper.Comment: 20 pages, International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications (IJCNC) Vol.8, No.2, March 201

An ecological characterisation of a shallow seasonal claypan wetland, Southwestern Australia

Perched, seasonal claypans of southwestern Australia are poorly understood in terms of their ecological character, such as relationship between hydrology and their biota. An example is Little Darkin Swamp, located on the Darling Plateau in southwestern Australia. The overall aim of this thesis was to describe its ecological character, to understand what drives this claypan system and how its ephemeral nature affects wetland processes and functions. This study first comprised a detailed characterisation of the wetland’s attributes, following the geomorphic-hydrological approach proposed by Semeniuk and Semeniuk (2011). This revealed that its hydrology is highly dependent on rainfall, that it is an endorheic system, with a basin that is structurally spatially heterogeneous with distinct vegetation zones, and that surface waters have nutrient levels that are similar to oligotrophic systems. These features make it similar to other claypan wetlands of southwestern Australia and vernal pools of California, USA. Continuous high-frequency dissolved oxygen data during the hydroperiod showed that there are large temporal and spatial variations in ecosystem metabolism, and that the trophic status of the wetland is finely balanced, fluctuating between auto- and heterotrophy due to its ephemeral nature. Due to its oligotrophic nature, rates of gross primary production (GPP) and respiration (R) were overall low, and the wetland was overall slightly autotrophic over the study period. Furthermore, dual isotope analysis of δ13C and δ15N of sources and consumers revealed that aquatic macrophytes make a higher contribution to the food web compared to other sampled sources. However, the food web was also supported by sources of carbon that were not sampled, probably filamentous algae and methanotrophic bacteria. Experimental re-hydration of dried sediments emphasized that the seasonality of the water regime, and the shallow bathymetry of the basin, influences organic matter content, nutrient levels, oxygen consumption, plant growth and macroinvertebrate richness, differently between the centre of the wetland versus the edges. These results confirmed that there are at least two distinct zones in the wetland in terms of biotic response following rewetting, caused by the differences in duration and frequency of inundation of the sediments. The outcomes of this study showed that the ephemerality (i.e. seasonal drying and wetting) of Little Darkin Swamp drives important internal ecosystem processes, such as ecosystem metabolism, nutrient cycling, and primary production, which in turn determine the trophic status and distribution of biotic communities in the wetland. Therefore, any changes to the hydrological regime will greatly affect how these system functions and can potentially negatively impact such unique shallow, seasonal perched systems of southwestern Australia

Continuum and crystal strain gradient plasticity with energetic and dissipative length scales

This work, standing as an attempt to understand and mathematically model the small scale materials thermal and mechanical responses by the aid of Materials Science fundamentals, Continuum Solid Mechanics, Misro-scale experimental observations, and Numerical methods. Since conventional continuum plasticity and heat transfer theories, based on the local thermodynamic equilibrium, do not account for the microstructural characteristics of materials, they cannot be used to adequately address the observed mechanical and thermal response of the micro-scale metallic structures. Some of these cases, which are considered in this dissertation, include the dependency of thin films strength on the width of the sample and diffusive-ballistic response of temperature in the course of heat transfer. A thermodynamic-based higher order gradient framework is developed in order to characterize the mechanical and thermal behavior of metals in small volume and on the fast transient time. The concept of the thermal activation energy, the dislocations interaction mechanisms, nonlocal energy exchange between energy carriers and phonon-electrons interactions are taken into consideration in proposing the thermodynamic potentials such as Helmholtz free energy and rate of dissipation. The same approach is also adopted to incorporate the effect of the material microstructural interface between two materials (e.g. grain boundary in crystals) into the formulation. The developed grain boundary flow rule accounts for the energy storage at the grain boundary due to the dislocation pile up as well as energy dissipation caused by the dislocation transfer through the grain boundary. Some of the abovementioned responses of small scale metallic compounds are addressed by means of the numerical implementation of the developed framework within the finite element context. In this regard, both displacement and plastic strain fields are independently discretized and the numerical implementation is performed in the finite element program ABAQUS/standard via the user element subroutine UEL. Using this numerical capability, an extensive study is conducted on the major characteristics of the proposed theories for bulk and interface such as size effect on yield and kinematic hardening, features of boundary layer formation, thermal softening and grain boundary weakening, and the effect of soft and stiff interfaces

APPLICATION OF MOLECULAR TOOLS TO ASSESS TOXICITY IN INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER AND TRACK VIRAL PATHOGENS IN MUNICIPAL WASTEWATERS

Wastewater is a complex matrix containing a wide range of microorganisms and chemical compounds. For public health purposes, it is critical to monitor for harmful microorganisms and evaluate the toxicity of chemicals present in industrial and municipal wastewaters on human and ecosystem health. Over the past decade, sophisticated technologies such as high-throughput sequencing have enabled the development of molecular tools, which are now widely employed for tracking pathogens and assessing toxicity of municipal and industrial wastewaters. Molecular tools for biomonitoring of wastewater are designed to target specific microbial biomarkers including nucleic acids, proteins and antigens. Accordingly, this dissertation applied molecular tools to characterize water quality and assess the occurrence of pathogens for improved management of industrial and municipal wastewater.Chapter 2 quantifies toxicity of wastewater generated from hydraulically fractured natural gas wells. My research involved adapting two toxicity microassays, a broad spectrum BioLuminescence Inhibition Assay (BLIA) employing the halotolerant bacterium Aliivibrio fischeri, and a specific cytotoxicity N-acetylcysteine (NAC) thiol reactivity assay to quantify toxicity of flowback and produced water (FPW) after hydraulic fracturing. My results suggested that both acute toxicity and thiol reactivity diminished with time after fracturing and were influenced by specific chemical additives in the wastewater, as opposed to sample fraction (solids vs liquid), or shale formation. In Chapter 3, I assessed concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material (N1 and N2) in both liquid and solids wastewater samples from seven coastal New England treatment facilities. My work shows that municipal wastewater treatment facilities efficiently remove SARS-CoV-2 from effluent, with the greatest removal from the liquid phase after secondary clarification. Viral particles were found at lower levels in wastewater sampled post-secondary treatment and were below detection after disinfection, compared to the primary-treated wastewater. Sludge samples had the highest concentrations, suggesting affinity of the viral genetic material toward the solids. In Chapter 4, I compared temporal trends of SARS-CoV-2 RNA biomarker signals on a small university campus (UNH Durham) versus biomarker signals for the broader Durham community before, during, and post-vaccination. My results revealed that COVID-19 vaccine administration resulted in a significant decrease in SARS-CoV-2 biomarker concentrations in wastewater concurrent with decreasing number of COVID-19 infections in the community. When new variants emerged, a significant increase in SARS-CoV-2 biomarker concentration occurred in the wastewater parallel with increasing number of COVID-19 infections in the UNH community. Taken together, this dissertation demonstrates that molecular tools optimized for wastewater from both municipal and industrial sources can effectively be used for assessing temporal trends in toxicity and pathogen prevalence to provide early detection and mitigate human health risks