Research has shown that children who exhibit problem behaviors in early childhood will oftentimes continue to experience these issues into adolescence, leading to an increase in negative social and health outcomes such as substance abuse and delinquency. The Family Check Up (FCU) is a proven, targeted intervention that seeks to address these problems at a young age in order to reduce the risk of these negative behaviors continuing into adolescence. The intervention consists of 3 components: 1) an initial interview in which the behavioral health consultant gets to know the family; 2) an assessment that consists of questionnaires and videotaped family interactions; and 3) a feedback session during which the family is provided with feedback unique to their particular situation, as well as appropriate solutions to these issues. The FCU has been shown to be effective in school-based settings in past studies; this study represents the first to test the feasibility of offering the FCU in a pediatric primary care practice. The aims of the study are based upon the RE-AIM framework (Reach; Effectiveness; Adoption; Implementation; and Maintenance), a Decision and Implementation (DamdI) science model that will assist in the evaluation of the utility of the FCU in the pediatric primary care setting. This particular project is focusing on two elements of the framework, Reach and Adoption. The FCU was implemented at East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) Pediatrics Clinic beginning on January 19th, 2015. The parents of patients between the ages of 4 and 5 years old are given the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17), a screener which helps to identify children who may be at risk for emotional and behavioral problems. If a child scores 15 or higher on the PSC-17, they are invited to participate in the components of the FCU. Research is ongoing, with 23 out of 31 patients (74.2%) completing the PSC-17 at their well-child visit. The results of the screeners thus far show that with the average score on the PSC-17 is 6.57, with the lowest score being 0 and the highest score being 19. Only 1 patient scored ≥ 15 on the PSC-17 thus far, possibly indicating the need for an expansion of the inclusion criteria for the remainder of the study. The final results of the project will indicate the rate of Reach and Adoption within the ETSU Pediatrics Clinic as well as provide evidence as to the most successful way to reach a specific population with an evidence-based intervention.

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes provide excellent error correction performance and can approach the channel capacity, but their performance degrades significantly in the presence of burst noise. Bursts of errors occur in many common channels, including the magnetic recording and the wireless communications channels. Strategies such as interleaving have been developed to help compensate for bursts errors. These techniques do not exploit the correlations that can exist between the noise variance on observations in and out of the bursts. These differences can be exploited in calculations of prior probabilities to improve accuracy of soft information that is sent to the LDPC decoder. Effects of using different noise variances in the calculation of prior probabilities are investigated. Using the true variance of each observation improves performance. A novel burst detector utilizing the forward/backward algorithm is developed to determine the state of each observation, allowing the correct variance to be selected for each. Comparisons between this approach and existing techniques demonstrate improved performance. The approach is generalized and potential future research is discussed.

No description available.

This thesis presents a novel VLSI design of multi-code rate Low-Density Parity-Check code (LDPC) decoder for IEEE 802.16e standard. In order to support the different code rates adopted by the standard, this thesis proposes a programmable LDPC decoder architecture based on the edge-serial approach. This edge-serial architecture can perform the sequential check-node computation according to the internal sequence update commands. Any complex and irregular parity-check matrix can all be realized in the proposed architecture if the number of bit-nodes each check node connects does not exceed a certain bound. In addition to the high flexibility, this thesis also proposes several design optimization techniques suitable for the LDPC decoder. First, the designs of the LDPC decoders in the past all put more emphasis on the realization of check node function. This thesis instead applies a novel bit-node major approach which can lead to more compact design. Secondly, a fine-grain message update method is used which allows more rapid message passing such that the decoder can converge in less cycles. In addition, almost half of the message memory can be reduced. Furthermore, based on the bit-node major decoder design, the early termination scheme can be utilized to partially terminate the function of some bit nodes to reduce the decoding cycles. The other salient features also include the rescheduling of the message update order to allow the overlap of different decoding iterations in order to reduce effect of the possible message update hazard due to the long internal pipeline latency. Based on the proposed optimization methods, our experimental results show that the hardware cost can be reduced by 23.1% while the decoding cycles can be reduced by 27.4%. The proposed LDPC decoder architecture has been realized by using 0.18 µm technology with the total gate count of 316k. Our experimental shows that the proposed LDPC decoder can run up to 235 MHz and deliver the average of 116 Mbps throughput.

The purpose of the present study is (1) to investigate factors that influence mathematical problem solving competence for elementary students, (2) to understand the current studies regarding the development of mathematical problem solving competence, and (3) to probe background factors that affect the development of mathematical problem solving competence. The subjects of the study included 710 fifth-graders in Tainan city. The surveys of Thinking Style Inventory, Mathematical Learning Perception Check List as well as Mathematical Problem Solving Competence Test were used as instruments for data collection. A total of 710 questionnaires were delivered and 587valid questionnaires were collected, with fairly high 82.60% return rate. The collected data was tested with descriptive analysis, independent t test¡BANOVA¡Bproduct-moment correlation coefficient,multiple correlation and multiple regression. Based on the data analysis, the six findings of this study are summarized as follows: 1. The low satisfaction with mathematics class was revealed from the analysis of students¡¦ Mathematical Learning Perception Check List. It is suggested boosting subjects¡¦ satisfaction with the mathematics class will enhance the development of mathematical problem solving competence. 2. The positive correlation between administration style and mathematical problem solving competence was shown eminently among all types of thinking styles. The result indicated different function of the thinking styles influenced the development of mathematical problem solving competence in a varied degree. 3. From the analysis of students¡¦ background factor and mathematics problem solving competence, the statistic indicated the length of extra curriculum students devoted to does not affect their mathematical problem solving competence. The factors that influence students¡¦ mathematical problem solving competence the most were shown in the following order: administration district, the social status of father, the social status of mother, gender and the size of school. 4. The comparative variance of the mathematics learning achievement and mathematics problem solving competence was 24.3%. It implied the two influences each other. Students with low mathematical learning achievement show low mathematical problem solving competence and vice versa. 5. When predicting students¡¦ development of mathematical problem solving competence via the data of parents¡¦ social status and mathematical learning perception check list, the result showed the prediction via parents¡¦ social status is less significant. Yet the prediction via mathematical learning perception check list gained the highest variance ratio in this case. 6. In terms of the distribution of parents¡¦ social status, East, North and Middle East were of eminent as compared to South, An-Ping and An-Nan district in Tainan city. The finding implied parents¡¦ social status was a major factor that influence students¡¦ mathematics problem solving ability in administration district, as the £b2 ¡]Eta Squared¡^¡×25.3¢H shown in this study.

No description available.

In the higher education environment today, lack of agreement about background checks between campus community members, fueled by unresolved tensions between security and privacy, has led many universities to adopt a patchwork of fragmented background check policies. Many of these policies have been created and accepted without careful consideration of the wide array of risks and complexities involved with background checks. This policy analysis examined the experiences and history behind Georgia Institute of Technology’s adoption of background check policy. This was achieved through interviewing relevant constituents and analyzing of all available/related official policy documents associated with Georgia Tech’s Pre-employment Background Check Policy and Program. This dissertation presents a chronological account of the events and influences associated with Georgia Tech’s adoption and revision of background check policy. Results of this study offer valuable insights and recommendations for further study in order to assist higher education policy makers and HR professionals at other universities in making more informed decisions regarding the challenges involved with background check, and similar, policy. Some of these insights include an awareness of societal tensions that exist between privacy and security policy; the importance of understanding how national, local, and organizational level triggering events have shaped and contributed to higher education background check policy that is based on a general concern for security; and my recommendation for further study into background check policy as it will relate to the higher matriculation process.

As one of the most powerful error-correcting codes, Low-density parity check codes are widely used in digital communications. Because of the performance of LDPC codes are capable to close the shannon limited extraordinarily, LDPC codes are to be used in the new Digital Video Broadcast-Satellite-Second Generation(DVB-S2) and it is the first time that LDPC codes are included in the broadcast standard in 2003. In this thesis, a restructured parity-check matrices which can be divided into sub-matrices for LDPC code in DVB-S2 is provided. Corresponded to this restructured parity-check matrix, a reconstructed decoding table is invented. The encoding table of DVB-S2 standard only could obtain the unknown check nodes from known variable nodes, while the decoding table this thesis provided could obtain the unknown variable nodes from known check nodes what is exactly the Layered-massage passing algorithm needed. Layered-message passing algorithm which also known as "Turbo-decoding message passing" is used to reduce the decoding iterations and memory storage for messages. The thesis also investigate Bp algorithm, lambda-min algorithm, Min-sum algorithm and SISO-s algorithm, meanwhile, simulation results of these algorithms and schedules are also presented.

C-uppsatser

In this thesis, we extend applications of Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes to a combination of constituent sub-channels, which is a mixture of Gaussian channels with erasures. This model, for example, represents a common channel in magnetic recordings where thermal asperities in the system are detected and represented at the decoder as erasures. Although this channel is practically useful, we cannot find any previous work that evaluates performance of LDPC codes over this channel. We are also interested in practical issues such as designing robust LDPC codes for the mixture channel and predicting performance variations due to erasure patterns (random and burst), and finite block lengths. On time varying channels, a common error control strategy is to adapt the coding rate according to available channel state information (CSI). An effective way to realize this coding strategy is to use a single code and puncture it in a rate-compatible fashion, a so-called rate-compatible punctured code (RCPC). We are interested in the existence of good puncturing patterns for rate-changes that minimize performance loss. We show the existence of good puncturing patterns with analysis and verify the results with simulations. Universality of a channel code across a broad range of coding rates is a theoretically interesting topic. We are interested in the possibility of using the puncturing technique proposed in this thesis for designing universal LDPC codes. We also consider how to design high rate LDPC codes by puncturing low rate LDPC codes. The new design method can take advantage of longer effect block lengths, sparser parity-check matrices, and larger minimum distances of low rate LDPC codes.