Open Journal Systems at the Victoria University of Wellington Library
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Some False Laws of Logic
Get PDFThis paper argues that some widely used laws of implication are false, and arguments based upon them invalid. These laws are Exportation, Commutation, (as well as various restricted forms of these), Exported Syllogism and Disjunctive Syllogism. All these laws are false for the same reason – that they license the suppression or replacement in some position of some class of propositions which cannot legitimately be suppressed or replaced. These laws fail to preserve the property of sufficiency of premiss set for conclusion. They are false, and can be seen to be false, independently of their respon- sibility for the paradoxes. Hence the main ‘independent’ argument for the paradoxes – that they follow from an allegedly immaculate set of laws – is undermined. Counterexamples to all these laws are produced
Magnetic Dipole Levitation - Simulation and Control Optimisation
Get PDFNuclear fusion has long been seen as the holy grail of clean energy. Fuelled by hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, fusion offers the potential for near-limitless energy production due to hydrogen isotopes natural abundance. Many different approaches have been and are being taken to achieve fusion, arguably the world-leading approach being magnetic confinement. The most notable reactors are Tokamaks and Stellarators although, other forms of magnetic confinement reactors exist such as the levitated dipole reactor. First theorized by Akira Hasegawa and later brought to life by a team at MIT in the early 2000s under the name “Levitated Dipole Experiment” (LDX). As the name implies the device involves a magnetic dipole which is levitated by an external force to be used for plasma confinement. Specifically, an overhead magnet is used in levitation. This formation is inherently vertically unstable, requiring a feedback loop and control system to maintain stability. This paper discusses the development of a model of dipole-dipole interactions and the design and evaluation of several controllers. As this is a power system at heart, efficiency is a fundamental aspect to be considered. Therefore, any unnecessary power consumption during levitation will harm the reactor’s bottom line in terms of net power production. Thus, with efficiency in mind, these controllers were evaluated to determine any inherent advantages or disadvantages. Furthermore, the accuracy of the produced models was assessed to determine their reliability in being applied to arbitrary coil geometries
Developing a Clustering-Based Semi-Supervised Learning Algorithm for Data Streams
Get PDFIn today's world, we encounter an enormous volume of continuous data streams. The task of processing and deriving insights from this data can be overwhelming. To address this challenge, we propose the use of a machine learning algorithm, specifically, a clustering-based semi-supervised learning algorithm. This choice is motivated by the recognition that data from these streams is often imperfect, exhibiting issues such as partial labelling, missing values, and noise. Therefore, a clustering-based semi-supervised learning algorithm has been put forward as a solution, as it is capable of handling diverse and inconsistent data, including both labelled and unlabelled data types. After conducting thorough background research, one prominent algorithm has been identified as capable of effectively addressing the project's requirements: the cluster and label classifier. In this project, variations of the cluster and label method were employed to build the proposed algorithm. At the current stage, the proposed model utilizes an ensemble architecture, where multiple cluster and label methods collaborate to classify data. The model also incorporates a combination of ensemble methods such as bagging and the Random Subspace Method. When evaluating this model using metrics such as accuracy, kappa, and execution time, the current model yields result like those of the cluster and label method. However, it is important to note that the execution time of the current model is considerably slower, approximately 160 times slower than the cluster and label method
ECS Final Year Project Marking System
Get PDFThe Final Year Project Marking System addresses the need for an efficient assessment process for Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) final year projects at Victoria University of Wellington. These projects carry significant weight within the ECS curriculum, characterised by unique individual projects and multiple examiners involved in grading. Moreover they are worth double the points of other ECS courses. The current reliance on the ECS Assessment System for marking presents challenges, including manual cross-referencing and reduced productivity for both examiners and course coordinators. To address these challenges, the development of a dedicated web-based marking system is proposed and implemented. This system is designed to optimise the assessment process with distinct user interfaces for course coordinators and examiners. Course coordinators can monitor progress and ensure fairness in grading, while examiners can focus on efficiently marking their assigned submissions. The web-based system is intended to elevate the grading and feedback process, ultimately benefiting both students and faculty. The chosen technology stack includes TypeScript and Next.js for full-stack web development. Microsoft’s Fluent UI Library is used for visually consistent components, with Tailwind CSS introduced for enhanced design flexibility. Meanwhile, a MySQL database and schema serves as the foundation for the system’s relational data storage. An evaluation of the system's effectiveness and usability stems from a questionnaire-based survey conducted on faculty staff. Finally, future work is presented, which is now possible due to the completion of the marking system
Diffusion Based Human Motion Generation
Get PDFEfficiently generating realistic human motion presents a significant challenge across various domains, including animation and robotics. Traditional handcrafted motion sequences for animation, is notoriously time-intensive and skill-demanding. On the other hand, motion capture technology, while being very effective for real-word data, often incurs high costs for the equipment and may produce noisy data requiring further work. This project focused on the development of autoregressive conditional diffusion models tailored to human motion generation. A comprehensive examination of existing state-of-the-art motion models that utilize diffusion and normalizing flows while acknowledging other generative models was conducted. Limitations and opportunities for enhancement in these models and propose generalizable solutions were identified. The research contributes to the ongoing evolution of generative diffusion techniques, particularly in autoregressive generative models. Furthermore, it provides an additional tangible demonstration of autoregressive diffusion using a toy model showed in an intuitive way that does not require animated sequences. This will further illustrate the model’s potential for time-series tasks and its ability to be applied to other domains while producing convincing results. By thoroughly evaluating our model and its capabilities, the aim is to provide a valuable contribution to the field with explorations into important hyperparameters and model architectures. This work underscores the importance of understanding and addressing challenges in predictive time-series tasks, thereby advancing our collective knowledge in this area
Machine Learning for Interpretable Age Estimation
Get PDFAge estimation from facial images has been growing as a machine-learning topic as it has many real-world applications. It can help with security control for minors, human-computer interaction based on age, and law enforcement concerning identity. These various problems could be solved by building and understanding a machine-learning model that labels a facial image into an age range. This comes with its fair share of issues such as people ageing differently due to genetics, the environment, or the facial photo quality. The motivation behind this project is to see which facial features contribute to age. To see this, genetic programming (GP) was specifically used, as its inherent interpretability helps interpret and understand how the model reaches its final age estimation. The results of this project include how accurate the GP is in estimating a person’s age compared to existing solutions, and analysing why the GP picked certain regions over others and how these regions contribute to the final age estimation
In Support of Valerie Plumwood
Get PDFThis paper offers general support for what Valerie Plumwood’s paper is trying to achieve by supporting the rejection of each of her four “false laws of logic”: exportation, illegitimate replacement, commutation (aka. permutation) and disjunctive syllogism. We start by considering her general characterizations of entailment, beginning with her stated definition of entailment as the converse of deducibility. However, this applies to a wide range of relevant logics and so is not able to be used as a criterion for deciding what laws to include in a logic. In this context, we examine the two key differences between deduction from premises to conclusion and entailment from antecedent to consequent. We also consider her use of sufficiency as a general characterizing feature. We then discuss Plumwood’s syntactic criteria used to reject the first three of her false laws of logic and add the Relevance Condition in this context. We next consider semantic characterizing criteria for a logic. After making a case against using truth, we introduce Brady’s logic MC of meaning containment. We then examine the content semantics for MC and use it to reject all of Plumwood’s false laws of logic together with some others. We follow with the related Depth Relevance Condition, which is a syntactic cri- terion satisfied by MC. This clearly rejects the first three of these laws and many others, but not the fourth law. We conclude by giving our overall support for her general enterprise
Public Order, Public Protest and Public Monuments
Get PDFMuch public protest in recent years has been directed towards monuments to controversial figures who have profited from the slave trade or other exploitative activities. The most striking example in the United Kingdom has been the fate of the four individuals accused of damaging the statue to Edward Colston in Bristol as part of a Black Lives Matter demonstration. This article examines the arguments relied on by the defence at trial and in the Attorney-General's Reference which followed their acquittal. The article begins by setting protest relating to public monuments in its international and historical context
Lowering the Voting Age: it’s all about competency
Get PDFThis article explores the recent high-profile debate around the current voting age of 18 in New Zealand. It examines the Supreme Court case brought by the ‘Make it 16’ campaign and then seeks to uncover the normative arguments for setting a minimum voting age. While the most common arguments for lowering the voting age have rhetorical force, they do not demonstrate why the voting age should be 16 rather than 18. The public debate does not address the key question: when do young people become competent so that they can responsibly and reasonably exercise the right to vote? This article concludes that a voting age of 18 is a better proxy for competency than 16 and that the voting age should not be lowered
Fa'amatai and the Land and Titles Court: Identifying Sites of Customary Authority in Contemporary Sāmoa
Get PDFThe 2020 Land and Titles Court (LTC) reforms in Sāmoa were a catalyst for the constitutional crisis that sent shockwaves through the Pacific. This article analyses what the debate surrounding these reforms, as well as the reforms themselves, reveal about fa'amatai (Sāmoa's indigenous political system). Due to the reforms, LTC decisions can no longer be appealed to the Supreme Court, removing the ability for customary decisions to be balanced against constitutional individual rights. The debate around these reforms often hinged on whether constitutional rights impeded the exercise of customary authority. This article identifies the different hierarchical structures of customary authority in Sāmoa and articulates how they have evolved to accommodate the LTC and constitutional rights. It argues that, as fa'amatai has evolved to survive colonisation, the LTC itself and to some degree individual constitutional rights have come to form a core part of the fa'amatai today
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