Thesis (LL. M.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Jennifer Nedelsky.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-210). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 104 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis--Tübingen Universität, 2004/2005.

abstract: In this thesis, an adaptive waveform selection technique for dynamic target tracking under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions is investigated. The approach is integrated with a track-before-detect (TBD) algorithm and uses delay-Doppler matched filter (MF) outputs as raw measurements without setting any threshold for extracting delay-Doppler estimates. The particle filter (PF) Bayesian sequential estimation approach is used with the TBD algorithm (PF-TBD) to estimate the dynamic target state. A waveform-agile TBD technique is proposed that integrates the PF-TBD with a waveform selection technique. The new approach predicts the waveform to transmit at the next time step by minimizing the predicted mean-squared error (MSE). As a result, the radar parameters are adaptively and optimally selected for superior performance. Based on previous work, this thesis highlights the applicability of the predicted covariance matrix to the lower SNR waveform-agile tracking problem. The adaptive waveform selection algorithm's MSE performance was compared against fixed waveforms using Monte Carlo simulations. It was found that the adaptive approach performed at least as well as the best fixed waveform when focusing on estimating only position or only velocity. When these estimates were weighted by different amounts, then the adaptive performance exceeded all fixed waveforms. This improvement in performance demonstrates the utility of the predicted covariance in waveform design, at low SNR conditions that are poorly handled with more traditional tracking algorithms. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2011

Colonoscopy is the gold standard and most common examination of the colon. Preparation is mandatory, but can be difficult for the patient. The aim of this study was exploring contributing factors rendering improved colonoscopy preparation. Method: An integrative review were using. 12 studies met the selection criteria. Articles were included from 2008 until 2017. The search terms used were before, care, colonoscopy, endoscopy, experience, information, nurse and preparation. The results: reported in two categories show that those patients who had personal contact with the nurses prior to the colonoscopy were most satisfied and best prepared for their examination. The feeling of sufficient information showed that the patient had less knowledge of the examination than desired. Conclusion: Information by a nurse prior to preparation helped patients to get better prepared for colonoscopy. Further, the patients were less worried and felt better prepared. This facilitated both the preparation and the colonoscopy. The result of the preparation was also proven better after verbal information by a nurse. Implication: In order to obtain well-informed and well-prepared patients, there seems to be much to gain by improving given information to enable the patients to feel safe and have a better preparation before colonoscopy. / Bakgrund: Koloskopi är gold standard och den vanligaste undersökningsmetoden av tjocktarmen och kan användas både för diagnostik och behandling. Undersökningen kräver vissa förberedelser som patienter ibland kan ha svårt att genomföra. Syftet var att utforska vad som bidrar till att patienterna kommer väl förberedda till sin koloskopiundersökning. Metod: En integrerad litteraturstudie resulterade i 12 artiklar från 2008 till 2017. Sökord som använts var before, care, colonoscopy, endoscopy, experience, information, nurse och preparation. Resultatet som redovisas i två kategorier visade att de patienter som hade haft personlig kontakt med sjuksköterskor, före undersökningen, var mest nöjda med informationen och bäst förberedda för koloskopiundersökningen. Känslan av tillräcklig information visade att man som patient hade mindre kunskap om undersökningen än vad man önskade. Konklusion: Resultatet av denna studie har visat att det som bidragit till att patienterna kommit väl förberedda till sin koloskopiundersökning har varit en personlig kontakt med information inför undersökningen. Patienterna kände sig bättre förberedda och blev mindre oroliga. Både undersökning och förberedelser upplevdes mindre besvärliga. Implikation: För att få välinformerade och väl förberedda patienter måste arbetet fortsätta med att undersöka vilken information som behövs för att patienterna ska känna sig trygga och väl förberedda inför sin undersökning.

Giving effect to the constitutional right to equality and the peculiar nature thereof in a heterogeneous society such as South Africa has proved to be a perplexing task. This is apparent when analyzing case law on the subject which demonstrates that our courts are regularly confronted with complex equality claims, and as a consequence, naturally have to make difficult decisions which in turn contribute toward our emerging and developing equality jurisprudence and ultimately the achievement of the constitutional standard of equality. This treatise considers substantive equality as a species of equality in the workplace and the defence of affirmative-action justification in terms of section 6 of the Employment Equity Act. In doing so, it outlines the seemingly peculiar application of affirmative action in a society that was once divided along racial and gender lines, a society that has once experienced one of the most severe forms of racial discrimination in the form of apartheid and its associated laws, policies and practices. This oppressive political regime had the effect of entrenching a deep legacy of racism, deprivation, exclusion and discrimination into the social fabric of society, which in turn had a disproportionate impact on the majority of people or categories of people relative to an elite minority. The legacy of this oppressive political system remains alarmingly evident today. The treatise reveals the challenges and difficulties a society faces in attempting to break with past patterns of disadvantage and its efforts to build a society that is non-racist, non-sexist, socially just and inclusive. The Constitution with its transformative vision should be considered the genesis of this credible and abiding process of redress. It is this exercise of redress coupled with the Constitution’s transformative mandate that raises difficult issues of restoration and reparation for past injustice, and the most appropriate and accommodating manner to do so. In addition to the Constitution, Parliament has enacted national legislation as a transformative agent in the workplace. The EEA as a legislative instrument was designed to give effect to the constitutional right to equality in the workplace. It emphatically prohibits unfair discrimination, but also obliges designated employers to implement affirmative-action measures. For such measures not to be unfairly discriminatory, they must be consistent with the purpose of the EEA. A plain reading of the EEA reveals that it does not provide sufficient guidelines for valid affirmative action. However, the EEA provides an interpretive injunction in that it must be interpreted in light of the Constitution and international law. In this regard the Constitutional Court in Minister of Finance v Van Heerden 1 in interpreting the Constitution, developed a test to assess whether a restitutionary measure such as affirmative action is in fact and in law a valid measure. To date this test is generally not followed, despite the authority of the judgment. In this regard, the courts have developed sound, but sometimes inconsistent principles and standards to test for the validity of affirmative action and to adjudge whether such measures are compliant with the Act. The test has also recently been reaffirmed in the recent judgment of South African Police Service v Solidarity obo Barnard.2 It is anticipated that affirmative-action case law will henceforth develop along the same lines. In this we appreciate judicial guidance and supervision in interpreting and pronouncing upon the legitimacy and validity of affirmative-action measures.

Ronald Dworkin has achieved prominence in the field of jurisprudence through his book, Taking Rights Seriously, (hereafter TRS) his many articles in the "New York Review of Books," and other publications that pursue a coherent philosophy for liberals. In response to criticism of his earlier work, Dworkin has expanded and clarified his liberal position on equality rights. This thesis will address how Dworkin's later writings attempt to fill in gaps that occur in Dworkin's first arguments for a hierarchical, principled picture of the law. It will be argued here that Dworkin's views require an unusual perspective on the concept of an individual, and this renders his rights-based political morality seriously deficient. The nature of Dworkin's theory is first indicated by an attack on the "ruling theory of law" which he characterizes as positivistic when asked what the law is, and utilitarian when required to decide what the law should be. His central criticism charges that legal arguments are incomplete without principles which refer to or are implications of rights. Dworkin's liberal political morality is founded on rights to equal respect and concern. The elaboration of what these rights mean is sustained throughout Dworkin's publications. He maintains that his liberal rights-thesis is the theoretical articulation of the constitutional right to equality. Applying Dworkin's rights-theory to the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke2 case illuminates many of the more abstract aspects of his views. This thesis will argue against Dworkin by focusing on the too-narrow conception of individuals implied by his theory of rights. The ideal Dworkin employs of a right to 'equality of resources' justifies an aggressive redistributional scheme, unchecked by a fuller conception of what is an individual. Dworkin is only able to hold his ideal of a right to 'equality of resources' together with his notion of individual rights by accepting a diminished concept of the individual. This argument suggests that a fuller conception of an individual recognizes the connection between merit and entitlement. Dworkin's scepticism regarding the feasibility of merit being protected by individual rights is undercut by introducing a distinction between merit and success. Leaving key aspects of an individual, such as merit and its related features, out of official deliberation about rights, conceptually inhibits the extent of individualizability in a rights theory. If we wish to maintain such features, and value their protection and cultivation by a political order, adopting Dworkin's rights-thesis and its consequences is impossible. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

Canada and the United States are similar in many respects, and both protect individual rights at a constitutional level. However, the Supreme Court of Canada and the United States Supreme Court have developed alternative conceptions of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression and equality. This thesis describes these differences and attempts to explain the reasons for their development. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court merely requires that governmental actors refrain from overt discrimination on the basis of an objectionable ground. Thus, the Court has created numerous doctrines to limit equality to this definition, including color-blindness, intentional discrimination, and multiple levels of review. Each of these concepts has contributed to the application of formal equality by restricting governmental attempts, such as affirmative action, to alleviate social inequality. In addition, the Court's application of content neutrality to freedom of expression cases has restricted attempts to promote equality through legislation restricting hate speech and pornography. By contrast, the Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted the protection of equality in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to respond to the actual social consequences of legislation. Rather than limiting the Charter to intentional discrimination, the Court will consider governmental actions which have the effect of creating or encouraging inequality. Similarly, governmental restrictions on hate speech and pornography have been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada as necessary for the protection of equality. For the Supreme Court of Canada, equality has a social reality. These differences suggest an alternative role of government in the rights sphere in Canada and the United States. The United States Supreme Court has developed a rights interpretation which excludes much significant governmental action, whether positive or negative. The Court has incorporated the Bill of Rights into the Fourteenth Amendment and, in doing so, has expanded individual rights at the expense of state power in the promotion of equality. The lack of such a development in Canada has resulted in a more substantial role for social legislation, while still protecting against governmental overreaching through the Charter. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

As the population grows and the travel demands increase, alternative interchange designs are becoming increasingly popular. The diverging diamond interchange is one alternative design that has been implemented in the United States. This design can accommodate higher flow and unbalanced flow as well as improve safety at the interchange. As the diverging diamond interchange is increasingly considered as a possible solution to problematic interchange locations, it is imperative to investigate the safety effects of this interchange configuration. This report describes the selection of a comparison group of urban diamond interchanges, crash data collection, calibration of functions used to estimate the predicted crash rate in the before and after periods and the Empirical Bayes before and after analysis technique used to determine the safety effectiveness of the diverging diamond interchanges in Utah. A discussion of pedestrian and cyclist safety is also included. The analysis results demonstrated statistically significant decreases in crashes at most of the locations studied. This analysis can be used by UDOT and other transportation agencies as they consider the implementation of the diverging diamond interchanges in the future.