This thesis fills a missing piece in research on multimodal performance measures for traffic on streets and highways. The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) published by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) provides Level of Service (LOS) methodologies which enable engineers and planners to evaluate the overall performance of roadways and highways based on the physical characteristics of facilities. This allows for the evaluation of those facilities and offers a means for recognizing issues and planning, designing, implementing, and ultimately assessing improvements. Originally, level of service was developed for automotive traffic only, but with recent developments as part of the complete streets movement, the performance of infrastructure for alternative transportation modes have also started being assessed in this fashion. There are methodologies in HCM 2010 for bicycle traffic at signalized intersections, all-way stop-controlled intersections, roadway and highway segments, but as of yet, no bicycle level of service methodology exists for two-way stop-controlled intersections. This work attempts to fill this gap. The methodology utilized for this report includes video collection of sample two-way stop-controlled intersections throughout California, collection of survey responses from viewers of video, and linear regression of collected survey responses with physical attributes of each sample intersection as the explanatory variables. Data was analyzed from both combined and individual street movements to determine the final equation set. The final methodology involves two separate procedures for major and minor streets at TWSC intersections. Final factors deemed significant in bicycle level of service analysis include sight distances, speed limits, presence of bus stops, presence and type of bicycle infrastructure, street widths and types of lanes present, pavement quality, and traffic flows.

Thesis advisor: Lauri Johnson / While the academic and social success of two-way immersion programs in the public school sector is widely documented, little research has been conducted on how US Catholic school leaders have managed this whole school reform. Through an exploratory case study, the motivations and perceptions of 28 Catholic school administrators and change agents/key informants (including teachers, assistant/vice principals, board members, and consultants) from ten Catholic elementary schools were interviewed regarding the conversion to a dual language immersion model. Findings considered how Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012) concept of professional capital and Grace’s (2002; 2010) notion of spiritual capital contributed to the leaders’ capacity to meet the school’s change needs. Most schools began with limited resources and knowledge about the technical aspects of dual language immersion, but made use of key local and national social networks as well as drew upon their own biographies and Catholic vision to increase enrollment and engender professional learning among faculty. Implications for future research and practice include attention to the nuances of academic excellence and the complex language history of Catholic schools. The study concludes with recommendations for Catholic school principals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This thesis studies a two-way relay network (TWRN), which consists of two single antenna source nodes and a multi-antenna relay node. The source nodes exchange information via the assistance of the relay node in the middle. The relay scheme in this TWRN is amplify-and-forward (AF) based analog network coding (ANC). A robust beamforming matrix optimization algorithm is presented here with the objective to minimize the transmit power at the relay node under given signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) requirements of source nodes. This problem is first formulated as a non-convex optimization problem, and it is next relaxed to a semi-definite programming (SDP) problem by utilizing the S-procedure and rank-one relaxation. This robust beamforming optimization algorithm is further validated in a MATLAB-based orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) MIMO two-way relay simulation system. To better investigate the performance of this beamforming algorithm in practical systems, synchronization issues such as standard timing offset (STO) and carrier frequency offset (CFO) are considered in simulation. The transmission channel is modeled as a frequency selective fading channel, and the source nodes utilize training symbols to perform minimum mean-square error (MMSE) channel estimation. BER curves under perfect and imperfect synchronization are presented to show the performance of TWRN with ANC. It is shown that the outage probability of robust beamforming algorithm is tightly related to the SINR requirements at the source nodes, and the outage probability increases significantly when the SINR requirements are high.

Government of Canada communications professionals work in an increasingly challenging environment, characterized by an intrusive 24/7 media cycle, a frenetic pace of evolving communication technologies, layered accountability requirements, political tension, and waning public trust. Scholars call on professional communicators to help rebuild public trust, which is intrinsic to a healthy democratic government. The Three-dimensional Model for Transparency in Government Communication developed by Fairbanks, Plowman and Rawlins (2007) serves as the theoretical framework for investigating the Government of Canada’s approach to transparent citizen-focused communications from the perspective of communications professionals. The model’s adaptability to the Government of Canada context is tested through 23 qualitative semi-structured interviews with Government of Canada senior communications advisors, managers and executives. The data is analysed using constant comparative thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that Government of Canada communicators strongly value transparency. Furthermore, the key components of the transparency model – communications practices, organizational support and provision of resources – encapsulate the factors that influence the practice of transparent citizen-focused communications by the Government of Canada. The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research and practical applications.

We study a two-way amplify and forward relay network with two transceivers which communicate through a network of nr relays while there is no direct link between the two transceivers. Each relay is equipped with a single antenna for transmitting and receiving. We study the minimization of the total transmit power that is used in all of the network nodes given the condition that the transceiver which calculates the optimal transmitting power has a full knowledge about the channels between itself and the relays and the variance with zero mean of the channels between the relays and the other transceiver. The total average power is minimized subject to a soft constraint which guarantees that the outage probability is below a certain level. The optimal solution is derived in closed form and leads to a single relay selection criterion. / UOIT

In wireless communications, channel estimation is necessary for coherent symbol detection. This thesis considers a network which consists of two transceivers communicating with the help of a relay applying the amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying scheme. The training based channel estimation technique is applied to the proposed network where the numbers of the training sequence transmitted by the two transceivers, are different. All three terminals are equipped with a single antenna for signal transmission and reception. Communication between the transceivers is carried out in two phases. In the first phase, each transceiver sends a transmission block of data embedded with known training symbols to the relay. In the second phase, the relay retransmits an amplified version of the received signal to both transceivers. Estimates of the channel coefficients are obtained using the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimator. The performance analysis of the derived estimates are carried out in terms of the mean squared error (MSE) and we determine conditions required to increase the estimation accuracy. / UOIT

Government of Canada communications professionals work in an increasingly challenging environment, characterized by an intrusive 24/7 media cycle, a frenetic pace of evolving communication technologies, layered accountability requirements, political tension, and waning public trust. Scholars call on professional communicators to help rebuild public trust, which is intrinsic to a healthy democratic government. The Three-dimensional Model for Transparency in Government Communication developed by Fairbanks, Plowman and Rawlins (2007) serves as the theoretical framework for investigating the Government of Canada’s approach to transparent citizen-focused communications from the perspective of communications professionals. The model’s adaptability to the Government of Canada context is tested through 23 qualitative semi-structured interviews with Government of Canada senior communications advisors, managers and executives. The data is analysed using constant comparative thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that Government of Canada communicators strongly value transparency. Furthermore, the key components of the transparency model – communications practices, organizational support and provision of resources – encapsulate the factors that influence the practice of transparent citizen-focused communications by the Government of Canada. The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research and practical applications.

This study analyzes the official Vkontakte group of United Russia during the period of January 10 – April 10, 2013. Parliamentary majorities of United Russia have been a pillar of the Russian political regime which, despite being undemocratic, is still characterized by considerable competition. Therefore, the study draws upon the two-way symmetrical model of public relations which is compatible with the catch-all character of the party and the horizontal, open-ended nature of social networks. According to the model, an organization wishing to build an attractive image should communicate with its publics in a two-way fashion and be ready to change in accordance with people’s preferences.   The method of content analysis is employed in the study in order to establish instances of two-way communication between the members of the group and its moderators. Special attention is paid to discussions regarding legislation since such conversations can clearly evidence that the party is ready to react to ordinary people’s interests and preferences. However, according to the findings of the study, the users’ messages seldom received feedback and almost all of their suggestions and questions regarding legislation were ignored.

The purpose of this study is to gain increased understanding of managers´ attitudes and knowledge about its role in the internal organizational communication. We want to understand how managers define dialogue and further understand the role that dialogue plays for managers. We want to see whether the different managers highlight some common foundations or differences in the dialogue. With the help of the following two questions we wish to understand managers´ relationship to the dialogue within the internal organizational communication:   -What meaning does the dialogue have for managers in the private sector? -What role does the dialogue play in the internal organizational communication according to these managers?   We use qualitative interviews as the data collection method of our material. Using material from the interviews and mainly in accordance with William Isaacs’ theory of dialogue, we can answer our questions.   The result shows that managers' views on the dialogue in many cases are similar to Isaacs’ vision but differs in part. The managers believe that employees are there to contribute to the company. The dialogue is used so that the employees in the business understand and reach the financial goals and visions. Isaacs says that all people are part of a whole and the dialogue is needed to achieve agreement and change. Isaacs also takes up the four pillars of an effective dialogue: listen, respect, await and talk undisguised.  Several of the managers agree with Isaacs that there has to exist a certain platform for an effective dialogue. We discovered three categories of the dialogues’ meaning and role for the managers and that the categories depend on the type of organization. All managers believe that the dialogue’s role is an important part of a well functioning organization. / Syftet med denna undersökning är att få ökad förståelse kring chefers syn och kunskap om dialogens betydelse inom den interna organisationskommunikationen.  Vi vill förstå hur chefer definierar dialog och vidare försöka förstå vilken roll dialogen spelar för chefer. Vi vill se om de olika cheferna belyser några gemensamma grundpelare eller skillnader vad gäller dialog. Med hjälp av följande två frågeställningar önskar vi förstå chefers relation till dialogen inom intern organisationskommunikation:    - Vad betyder dialog för chefer inom den privata sektorn? - Vilken roll spelar dialogen i den interna organisationskommunikationen enligt dessa chefer?   Vi använder oss av kvalitativa intervjuer som insamlingsmetod av vårt material. Med hjälp av materialet från intervjuerna och huvudsakligen William Isaacs teori om dialogen kan vi besvara våra frågeställningar.    Resultatet visar att chefers syn på dialogen i många fall är lik Isaacs syn men skiljer sig delvis.  Cheferna anser att människan är till för verksamheten och dialogen är till för att människorna i verksamheten ska kunna förstå och nå de ekonomiska mål och visioner vilka är uppsatta. Isaacs menar att alla är delar av en helhet och dialogen krävs för att kunna uppnå samförstånd och förändring. Isaacs tar även upp fyra grundpelare för en fungerande dialog; lyssna, respektera, avvakta och tala oförställt. Flera av cheferna håller med Isaacs om grunderna för en dialog. Vi kommer fram till tre kategorier för dialogens betydelse och roll för cheferna och att kategorierna är beroende av verksamhetstypen.  Samtliga chefer anser att dialogens roll är en viktig del för en fungerande verksamhet.