Disputats, 2008.

Background: In 2010, immigrants comprised 20% of the Canadian population. Canada has one of the highest incidence and mortality rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) in the world. This study seeks to explore factors that are associated with CRC screening and to determine whether immigrants are less likely to be screened for CRC compared to non-immigrants. Methods: Data were obtained from Statistics Canada Canadian Community Health Survey, 2008. The Behavioral Model of Health Services Use was used as a theoretical framework. Chi-square statistics and multiple logistic regression models were employed. Results: Recent immigrants were less likely to be screened by endoscopy within 5 years (OR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.29 – 0.77), endoscopy within 10 years (OR: 0.38; 95% CI: 0.24 - 0.60) and be up-to-date with screening (OR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.37 - 0.91) compared to non-immigrants. Conclusions: A formal screening program and patient navigators may address disparities among recent and non-immigrants.

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are dynamically self-organized and self-configured, where the nodes in the network automatically establish an ad hoc network and maintain mesh connectivity. These properties make WMNs a key technology for next generation wireless networking. However, supporting Quality of Service (QoS) to enable multimedia services is still one of the major issues in next-generation WMNs. In distributed systems like WMNs, the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer is considered very important in the IEEE 802.11-based wireless networks, as it supports many crucial operational functions. Hence, QoS support in WMNs can be enhanced through the efficient cross-layer design of MAC protocols that utilizes advanced physical layer technologies viz Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) with its multiple spatial channels that are capable of simultaneous receive or transmit streams. MIMO has become a very attractive technology in providing support for different QoS requirements. In this thesis we propose a novel QoS MIMO-aware MAC Protocol (QMMP). QMMP is a MAC protocol framework that exploits the MIMO system gains to boost QoS support. The proposed MAC framework includes the following components. The first component enables concurrent sharing of the increased MIMO bandwidth, i.e., instead of allocating all the spatial channels to one connection, connections can concurrently share the increase bandwidth via splitting the spatial channels. The second component reduces the medium access collisions problem. In distributed systems like WMNs, medium access collisions have a noticeably negative impact on resource (bandwidth) utilization as they leave the bandwidth unutilized for a long time. To address this problem, we propose a spatial channels sharing scheme during medium contention period. The third component boosts the bandwidth utilization during data transmission. We propose resource management schemes that adapt the physical data rate and the aggregation frame length according to the instantaneous channel quality. Then we propose a QoS-aware bandwidth provisioning mechanism that performs effective bandwidth distribution to further boost QoS support. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-01-26 10:11:16.729

In this thesis, we investigate the impact of channels that have a bursty nature in a cognitive radio network scenario. Our goal is to design a general channel usage model that can handle bursty primary user channel usage. The proposed model describes idle periods with a discrete platoon arrival process and describes busy periods with a discrete phase type distribution. The performance of the proposed model is compared with two more traditionally encountered channel usage models in three different secondary user access schemes. First, we design a reactive access scheme to show the poor performance results an in- vestigator can potentially obtain when ignoring bursty data traffic. We have also analyzed two proactive secondary network access schemes. Numerical results show that the achiev- able utilization and interference probability of the network are affected when traditional channel models are used in a bursty PU channel.

No description available.

For years, schools across the nation have been joining the technology revolution. Today, students have at least some form of technology available to them in school (Roblyer, Castine, andamp; King, 1993; Croxall andamp; Cummings, 2000). This trend is not likely to change, so there is an increasing need for teachers who are literate in the use of the various types of technology. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between computer literacy and use of technology, as well as if a relationship exists between teachers access to technology and their use of technology in Family and Consumer Sciences Education classrooms in the state of Kentucky. Teachers were presented with statements regarding computer literacy, access to technology, and use of technology. It was concluded that, when compared to Daviss Conventions for Correlation Coefficient, computer literacy and use of technology had a substantial relationship, while access to technology and use of technology had a moderate relationship.

No description available.

People store and share ever-increasing numbers of digital documents, photos, and other files, both on personal devices and within online services. In this environment, proper access control is critical to help users obtain the benefits of sharing varied content with different groups of people while avoiding trouble at work, embarrassment, identity theft, and other problems related to unintended disclosure. Current approaches often fail, either because they insufficiently protect data or because they confuse users about policy specification. Historically, correctly managing access control has proven difficult, timeconsuming, and error-prone, even for experts; to make matters worse, access control remains a secondary task most non-experts are unwilling to spend significant time on. To solve this problem, access control for file-sharing tools and services should provide verifiable security, make policy configuration and management simple and understandable for users, reduce the risk of user error, and minimize the required user effort. This thesis presents three user studies that provide insight into people’s access-control needs and preferences. Drawing on the results of these studies, I present Penumbra, a prototype distributed file system that combines semantic, tag-based policy specification with logicbased access control, flexibly supporting intuitive policies while providing high assurance of correctness. Penumbra is evaluated using a set of detailed, realistic case studies drawn from the presented user studies. Using microbenchmarks and traces generated from the case studies, Penumbra can enforce users’ policies with overhead less than 5% for most system calls. Finally, I present lessons learned, which can inform the further development of usable access-control mechanisms both for sharing files and in the broader context of personal data.

In this thesis, we investigate the impact of channels that have a bursty nature in a cognitive radio network scenario. Our goal is to design a general channel usage model that can handle bursty primary user channel usage. The proposed model describes idle periods with a discrete platoon arrival process and describes busy periods with a discrete phase type distribution. The performance of the proposed model is compared with two more traditionally encountered channel usage models in three different secondary user access schemes. First, we design a reactive access scheme to show the poor performance results an in- vestigator can potentially obtain when ignoring bursty data traffic. We have also analyzed two proactive secondary network access schemes. Numerical results show that the achiev- able utilization and interference probability of the network are affected when traditional channel models are used in a bursty PU channel.

This dissertation considers the random access process in the Medium Access Control (MAC) of communications system. New MAC models are developed to improve the performance of random access based systems. The first contribution is the introduction of a general multichannel random access model with a variable radix. This model is general and can be applied to many existing MAC protocols that utilize random access. It is shown that using the standard Binary Exponential Backoff (BEB) to resolve collisions is not always the best choice. By adjusting the radix, contention efficiency can be improved significantly. The analytical results obtained are confirmed by simulation. The second contribution is the investigation of the variable radix backoff strategy with the contention-based bandwidth request (BW-REQ) mechanism in IEEE 802.16 systems. An analytical model of the BW-REQ procedure is presented which includes a variable radix in the backoff process. Analytical results are presented which show that the variable radix can easily be adjusted to the number of users and the available resources to enhance the efficiency of the Random Access Channel in the uplink subframe. Simulations results are presented to confirm the theory. The third contribution is the development of a reliable Quality of Service (QoS) mechanism for random access systems. The available resources are quantitatively categorized to provide differential services to two classes of users. The model is extended to employ a variable radix strategy. Results show that this strategy can be used in combination with differential services to provide an efficient QoS technique for random access. The fourth contribution is an optimized packet-based finite state Markov chain (FSMC) model for the physical channel. This model employs an equal average fade range duration (AFRD) strategy to partition the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The Nakagami-m fading channel model is used as it can span a wide range of fading conditions. The accuracy of the analytical results is confirmed by simulation. A cross-layer Markov model encompassing the FSMC model and a general multichannel random access model is introduced. Finally, a simulation toolbox using object oriented programming is presented. It was used to accurately simulate the models developed in this dissertation. This toolbox is general and can be used for a wide range of MAC models. / Graduate