title: Primitivist theories of truth: Their history and prospects

authors: Wyatt, Jeremy

abstract: Primitivists about truth maintain that truth cannot be analysed in more fundamental terms. Defences of primitivism date back to the early years of analytic philosophy, being offered by G.E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, and Gottlob Frege. In more recent years, a number of contemporary philosophers—including Donald Davidson, Ernest Sosa, Trenton Merricks, Douglas Patterson, and Jamin Asay—have followed suit, defending their own versions of primitivism. I'll begin by offering a brief history of primitivism, situating each of these views within the landscape of primitivist truth theories and detailing some of their core motivations and apparent shortcomings. To close the discussion, I'll offer a diagnosis of the prospects of primitivism, focusing on the mystery challenge, which has loomed large throughout the history of primitivist truth theories, and the methodology that should be used in evaluating primitivist (and other) truth theories going forward.

text: Primitivist theories of truth: Their history and prospects Primitivists about truth maintain that truth cannot be analysed in more fundamental terms. Defences of primitivism date back to the early years of analytic philosophy, being offered by G.E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, and Gottlob Frege. In more recent years, a number of contemporary philosophers—including Donald Davidson, Ernest Sosa, Trenton Merricks, Douglas Patterson, and Jamin Asay—have followed suit, defending their own versions of primitivism. I'll begin by offering a brief history of primitivism, situating each of these views within the landscape of primitivist truth theories and detailing some of their core motivations and apparent shortcomings. To close the discussion, I'll offer a diagnosis of the prospects of primitivism, focusing on the mystery challenge, which has loomed large throughout the history of primitivist truth theories, and the methodology that should be used in evaluating primitivist (and other) truth theories going forward.

year: 2022

title: Control-theoretical stress-testing for cross-platform compliance

authors: McCarthy, Harry George Andrew

subjects: LQR

abstract: Modern systems are required more and more to be able to provide performance reliability qualities for not just one system but cross platform as well. Stress testing applications allow for performance testing of a system, however, when applied across different platforms the performance of the application is not a one to one comparison. This thesis introduces the idea of applying control theory to provide consistent resource percentage utilisation when stress testing cross platform. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control, Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control and a PID Assisted LQR control were utilised as three control system in this thesis. While the PID controller provided the best results across multiple platforms, its inability to control all the variables in the system along with multiple different state
objectives (CPU and memory) leads to the need for a system model approach. LQR controllers provide this model based approach but at the cost of being unable to adapt across different platforms and to unpredictability in the system. Finally, a combined approach PID Assisted LQR control. PID Assisted LQR control gave the best of both PID and LQR control approach and had improvements in the case of where the system was most unpredictable but lacked any significant improvements in areas where the model gave an accurate representation of the system.

text: Control-theoretical stress-testing for cross-platform compliance Modern systems are required more and more to be able to provide performance reliability qualities for not just one system but cross platform as well. Stress testing applications allow for performance testing of a system, however, when applied across different platforms the performance of the application is not a one to one comparison. This thesis introduces the idea of applying control theory to provide consistent resource percentage utilisation when stress testing cross platform. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control, Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control and a PID Assisted LQR control were utilised as three control system in this thesis. While the PID controller provided the best results across multiple platforms, its inability to control all the variables in the system along with multiple different state
objectives (CPU and memory) leads to the need for a system model approach. LQR controllers provide this model based approach but at the cost of being unable to adapt across different platforms and to unpredictability in the system. Finally, a combined approach PID Assisted LQR control. PID Assisted LQR control gave the best of both PID and LQR control approach and had improvements in the case of where the system was most unpredictable but lacked any significant improvements in areas where the model gave an accurate representation of the system.

year: 2020

title: Differential trends in the compression of mortality: Assessing the antecedents to current gaps in health expectancy in New Zealand

authors: Pool, Ian

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Health Expectancies (HEs) for New Zealand show significant differentials between Maori and non-Maori, but also by gender and period. These differentials correlate with findings from both generation and synthetic life-tables relating to New Zealand’s epidemiologic transition. At the beginning of that transition quartile 1 (Q(1)), and Median (Med) d(x) values were close and centred at young ages; during the transition the gap became very wide; at the transition’s end the gap again narrowed. Cohort and synthetic trends in d(x), l(x), M, Qs and Meds are reviewed and linked to recent HEs. Data point to epidemic polarisation. Cohort analysis allows the evaluation of the role of past experiences on the recent HEs, and thus point to possible strategies for reducing gaps in both d(x), and HEs.

text: Differential trends in the compression of mortality: Assessing the antecedents to current gaps in health expectancy in New Zealand Health Expectancies (HEs) for New Zealand show significant differentials between Maori and non-Maori, but also by gender and period. These differentials correlate with findings from both generation and synthetic life-tables relating to New Zealand’s epidemiologic transition. At the beginning of that transition quartile 1 (Q(1)), and Median (Med) d(x) values were close and centred at young ages; during the transition the gap became very wide; at the transition’s end the gap again narrowed. Cohort and synthetic trends in d(x), l(x), M, Qs and Meds are reviewed and linked to recent HEs. Data point to epidemic polarisation. Cohort analysis allows the evaluation of the role of past experiences on the recent HEs, and thus point to possible strategies for reducing gaps in both d(x), and HEs.

year: 2009