Careful network planning has become increasingly critical with the rising deployment, coverage, and congestion of wireless local area networks (WLANs). This thesis outlines the achieved prediction accuracy of a direct-ray, single path loss exponent, adapted Seidel-Rappaport propagation model as determined through measurements and analysis of the established 2.4 GHz, 802.11g outdoor WiFi network deployed on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Additionally, the viability of using the obtained model parameters as a means for planning future network deployment is discussed. Analysis of measured data shows that accurate predictive planning for network coverage is possible without the need for overly complicated modeling techniques such as ray tracing. The proposed model performs with accuracy comparable to other commonly accepted, more complicated models and is offered as a simple, yet strong predictive model for network planning having both speed and accuracy. Results show, that for the area under study, the standard deviation of the prediction error for the proposed model is below 6.8dB in all analyzed environments, and is approximately 5.5dB on average. Further, the accuracy of model predictions in new environments is shown to be satisfactory for network planning.

This thesis is trying to answer the question: why the labor regime of Taiwan would toward the direction is not conducive to the Taiwan¡¦s labor? There are a large number of previous articles had analyzed the labor regime of Taiwan. Most of them were focused on how the single factor influenced the labor regime¡¦s establishment or on how to analyze the static institute. We argue that approaches had a similar problem is unable to offer an integral explanation, which is no matter how the institute has changed still maintaining not conducive to the Taiwan¡¦s labor. Therefore we aim to broaden the perspection, by evolving the social surroundings, the interactions amount actors and institutions development, to outline a much more comprehensive picture of the labor regime than previous articles could do. This thesis uses path dependence which conception is the historical institutionalist used to explain how the institute be operated and how it had constrained actors¡¦ behavior. I would display my research method as follow. First, as we could see is path dependence not only brought us a far more exhaustive imagination of the labor regime but told us the importance of the diachronic comparison. Therefore the first step of this study sets the time of observation during 1980 to 2010. In order to emerged and convenient to observe the historical development of labor regime, we chosen every ten years for a period of time, which meant that period of chapter 2 would be set within 1980 to 90, chapter 3 would be set within 1990 to 2000, and chapter 4 would be set within 2000 to 10. Then by comparing these three periods¡¦ similarities, we could easily to extract those similarities and recognize the development path of labor regime. Second, we claimed that labor regime is constituted by three components: one is social surroundings, one is institute, and the other is three actors include nation, capital and labor. This thesis had planned that every chapter should to discuss about how those three components influence each other. After comparing those three periods, the major finding is we could explicitly figure out the path of the labor regime which has towards to flexibilize and commoditize the labor market. Beside this conclusion could explain our research question, we also trying to describe the Taiwan¡¦s labor regime a comprehensive imagination.

Many researchers have examined the effect of various work-related factors on transfer of learning. However, there has been little or no focus on the effect of key workplace factors such as job stress and job satisfaction on transfer of learning. The current study examines the relationship among job stress, job satisfaction, motivation to transfer and transfer of learning based on the perceptions of selected Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) outreach trainers who underwent training conducted by the Texas Engineering Extension, Texas. A 24-item questionnaire was utilized to collect data. The questionnaire was sent electronically to all outreach trainers who underwent the OSHA General Industry Course 501 during 2005, and the first six months of 2006. The sample included 418 respondents representing a population of 1234 outreach trainers. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha estimates for reliability, factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, path analysis, and Sobel tests were the analysis methods used in the study. The results from the analysis suggest that job stress and its related dimensions, time stress, and anxiety had an indirect correlation with transfer of learning through job satisfaction and motivation to transfer. Further, it was found that job stress, time stress, and anxiety predicted job satisfaction; time stress predicted anxiety; job satisfaction predicted motivation to transfer; and motivation to transfer predicted transfer of learning. Finally, path analysis results and mediation tests showed that: (1) the relationship between job stress and transfer was mediated by job satisfaction and motivation to transfer, (2) the relationship between time stress and transfer was mediated by job satisfaction and motivation to transfer, (3) the relationship between anxiety and transfer was mediated by job satisfaction and motivation to transfer, and finally (4) the relationship between time stress and transfer was mediated by anxiety, job satisfaction, and motivation to transfer.

Granular aggregates of quartz subjected to triaxial compression under constant effective pressures (Pe) undergo macroscopic failure at critical stress states that depend on the effective mean stress. Although the mode of failure and mechanical response vary systematically with mean stress at failure, prefailure loading at subcritical stress states may induce yielding, and subcritical load paths may influence behavior at failure. Here, I investigate how the failure of quartz aggregates at conditions favoring compaction depends on consolidation history and load path in the transitional and ductile deformation regimes in terms of strain localization and microfracture fabric. Three distinct non-standard triaxial compression load paths were employed; the paths involve different preconsolidation of the aggregates at subcritical isotropic stress followed by differential loading with increasing or decreasing confining pressure. Deformed aggregates were injected with epoxy and studied using optical microscopy techniques to determine microscopic damage evolution for the different load paths. Microfracture data show that preconsolidation at subcritical isotropic loads facilitates formation of campaction bands during subsequent triaxial compression in the transitional regime. The preferred orientation of intragranular cracks evolves from near random fabrics for isotropic loading to strongly preferred orientations parallel to the maximum principal compression direction for differential loading, with the strongest preferred orientation within the compaction bands. Aside from the preconsolidation, different load paths have only a minor effect on the mechanical response during macroscopic failure.

In this research the stochastic nonlinear dynamic behaviors and probability density function of ship rolling are studied by nonlinear dynamic method and probability theory. The probability density function of rolling response is evaluated through solving the stochastic differential equations by using path integral method based on Gauss-Legendre interpolation scheme. The time-dependent probability of ship rolling restricted within the safe domain is provided and capsizing is investigated in the probability‟s view. The random differential equation of ships‟ rolling motion is established considering the nonlinear damping, nonlinear restoring moment, the white noise wave excitation, and the colored noise wave excitation. As an example, an ocean survey vessel T-AGOS is considered to sail in the seas of Pierson-Moskowitz wave spectrum. It is found that the probability decreases as time progresses and it decreases much more quickly for the high intensity of the noise. The ship will finally leave the safe domain and capsize in the probability‟s view. It is also shown the similarity of probability density contours between the case of white noise wave excitation and the case of colored noise wave excitation.

In motion planning, high clearance paths are favorable due to their increased visibility and reduction of collision risk such as the safety of problems involving: human- robot cooperation. One popular approach to solving motion planning problems is the Probabilistic Roadman Method (PRM), which generates a graph of the free space of an environment referred to as a roadmap. In this work we describe a new approach to making high clearance paths when using PRM The medial axis is useful for this since it represents the set of points with maximal clearance and is well defined in higher dimensions. However it can only be computed exactly in workspace. Our goal is to generate roadmaps with paths following the medial axis of an environment without explicitly computing the medial axis. One of the major steps of PRM is local planning: the planning of motion between two nearby nodes PRMs have been used to build roadmaps that have nodes on the medial axis but so far there has been no local planner method proposed for connecting these nodes on the medial axis. These types of high clearance motions are desirable and needed in many robotics applications. This work proposes Medial Axis Local Planner (MALP), a local planner which attempts to connect medial axis configurations via the medial axis. The recursive method takes a simple path between two medial axis configurations and attempts to deform the path to fit the medial axis. This deformation creates paths with high clearance and visibility properties. We have implemented this local planner and have tested it in 2D and 3D rigid body and 8D and 16D fixed base articulated linkage environments. We compare MALP with a straight-line local planner (SL), a typical local planer used in motion planning that interpolated along a line in the planning space. Our results indicate that MALP generated higher clearance paths than SL local planning. As a result, MALP found more connections and generated fewer connected components as compared to connecting the same nodes using SL connections. Using MALP connects noes on the medial axis, increasing the overall clearance of the roadmap generated.

The purpose of this study is to describe and examine the attitudes of coffee cooperative members towards the ownership of the SPREAD cooperatives in relation to cooperative sustainability. In addition this study identifies barriers faced by member farmers and subsequently provides recommendations on ways in which SPREAD can help its member farmers achieve a more sustainable livelihood. Previous analysis of the SPREAD project and its member cooperatives has suggested that coffee cooperative members do not feel ownership of the cooperative and have not benefited from the cooperatives, leaving the sustainability of the cooperatives to question. The research questions used for this study focused on issues of sustainability, ownership and organizational impact and barriers. All of the cooperatives studied over the course of this project receive funds from the USAID funded project SPREAD. The population of interest comprised members from three of the fourteen cooperatives receiving aid from the SPREAD project. A sample of 52 individuals participated in the study, with the data being collected from mid-July to mid-August, 2009. Quantitative data were collected using a close-ended category-scale questionnaire. The close-ended category-scale questionnaires were analyzed based on the frequency and percentage of responses. Major findings of this study included that coffee cooperative members felt that in the absence of SPREAD, the coffee cooperatives would be unable to function. In regards to ownership, members felt as if they owned the cooperatives. The disparity between these two constructs shows that once SPREAD no longer supports the cooperatives, then sustainability is to question and further they are more susceptible to collapse.

In this thesis, we present two e cent algorithms to compute shortest path between pair of vertices in directed and undirected double-loop networks. The algorithm for undirected double-loop networks is based on the concept "packed basis" proposed by Janez Zerrovnik and Toma z Pisanski. With O(logN) preprocessing time, both algorithms need only constant time to compute the shortest path between any pair of vertices in the network. This is an improvement of the best known algorithm, which needs O(l) time, where l is the length of the path in the directed double-loop networks. These algo- rithms are useful in message routing in the double-loop networks. Once the network has been constructed, the parameters for computing the shortest paths can be computed. At the time a message is to be delivered, the algo- rithm needs only constant time to determine which edge the message should be sent.

Conventional logic circuit designs are based on fully complementary CMOS logic circuits. In the past decade, many Pass-Transistor Logic (PTL) circuits have been proposed that are claimed to have better performance in area, speed and power. Most current PTL logic circuits are composed of a limited number of basic PTL cells (say 2 to 5 types of cells only). However, current placement-and-routing (P&R) CAD tools are mainly designed based on CMOS cell library which usually contains many cells with different logic functions. Thus the P&R tool does not fully exploit the features of the synthesized PTL gate-level netlists. In this thesis, we present a P&R tool dedicated to the generation of the final physical layout for the PTL netlists that are generated from a PTL synthesizer. This backend tool considers the efficient placement and routing of the PTL cells in order to reduce the area cost and to reduce the impact of the interconnection wirings on speed and power performances. Besides, in this thesis, the critical paths of the PTL netlists will be identified and the corresponding input patterns to activate these critical paths will be generated for post-layout speed simulation using HSPICE or Nanosim. In summary, the layout generator in this thesis performs the P&R of PTL netlists and also automatically find the critical paths and their corresponding input patterns.

The objective of this study is design and manufacture a tube hydroforming machine with counter feeding and axial feeding, which includes a forming apparatus, hydraulic system and control system. Using computer program to execute the loading path and correct by sensors. To test the function of the machine, carry out the experiments of T,Y-shape hydraulic bulging with annealed AA6063-T5 and 6011A aluminum, which by different working path, and using the experiments to analyze the influences of these parameters on the formability of the tubes.