Homeless research has focused on the service-directed approach, but few qualitative studies have focused on the critical and sensitive nature of the intake process. Staff in rural and remote communities struggle to refer services and mainstream resources to homeless veterans. The purpose of this case study was to explore case managers' perspectives on intake procedures in rural Pennsylvania communities. Lewin's force field analysis was used as a theoretical basis to examine the rationale for behaviors and forces that impact an individual's state. Six case managers and 1 supervisor were selected for face-to-face interviews based on their experience, job duties, and length of time involved in homeless services. The themes that emerged from coding analysis included coordinated entry, paperwork length and redundancy, geographical barriers including transportation and employment services, identification and outreach, and case management staff. Findings may be used to improve assessment techniques and critical time intervention strategies to reduce the length of homelessness for rural veterans.

This paper explores the motion planning problem for multiple moving objects. The approach taken consists of assigning priorities to the objects, then planning motions one object at a time. For each moving object, the planner constructs a configuration space-time that represents the time-varying constraints imposed on the moving object by the other moving and stationary objects. The planner represents this space-time approximately, using two-dimensional slices. The space-time is then searched for a collision-free path. The paper demonstrates this approach in two domains. One domain consists of translating planar objects; the other domain consists of two-link planar articulated arms.

In the LTE mobile system, all cells use the same set of frequencies. This means that a user could experience interference from other cells. A method that has been studied in order to reduce this interference and thereby increase data rate or system throughput is to coordinate scheduling between cells. Good results of this have been found in different studies. However, the interference is generally assumed to be known. Studies using estimated interference and simulating more than one cluster of cells have found almost no gain. This thesis will focus on how to use information from coordinated scheduling and other traffic estimates to do better interference estimation and link adaption. The suggested method is to coordinate larger clusters and use the coordination information, as well as estimates of which cells will be transmitting, to make estimates of interference from other cells. The additional information from interference estimation is used in the link adaptation. Limitations in bandwidth of the backhaul needed to send data between cells are considered, as well as the delay it may introduce. A limitation of the scope is that MIMO or HetNet scenarios have not been simulated. The suggested method for interference estimation and link adaptation have been implemented and simulated in a system simulator. The method gives a less biased estimate of SINR, but there are no gains in user bit rate. The lesser bias is since the method is better at predicting high SINR than the base estimate is. The lack of gains regarding user bit rate may result from the fact that in the studied scenarios, users where not able to make use of the higher estimated SINR since the base estimate is already high. The conclusion is that the method might be useful in scenarios where there are not full load, but the users either have bad channel quality or are able to make use of very high SINR. Such scenarios could be HetNet or MIMO scenarios, respectively.

Rather than emitting pulses, passive radar systems rely on illuminators of opportunity, such as TV and FM radio, to illuminate potential targets. These systems are attractive since they allow receivers to operate without emitting energy, rendering them covert. Until recently, most of the research regarding passive radar has focused on detecting and tracking targets. This dissertation focuses on extending the capabilities of passive radar systems to include automatic target recognition. The target recognition algorithm described in this dissertation uses the radar cross section (RCS) of potential targets, collected over a short period of time, as the key information for target recognition. To make the simulated RCS as accurate as possible, the received signal model accounts for aircraft position and orientation, propagation losses, and antenna gain patterns. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) estimates the target's orientation (and uncertainty in the estimate) from velocity measurements obtained from the passive radar tracker. Coupling the aircraft orientation and state with the known antenna locations permits computation of the incident and observed azimuth and elevation angles. The Fast Illinois Solver Code (FISC) simulates the RCS of potential target classes as a function of these angles. Thus, the approximated incident and observed angles allow the appropriate RCS to be extracted from a database of FISC results. Using this process, the RCS of each aircraft in the target class is simulated as though each is executing the same maneuver as the target detected by the system. Two additional scaling processes are required to transform the RCS into a power profile (magnitude only) simulating the signal in the receiver. First, the RCS is scaled by the Advanced Refractive Effects Prediction System (AREPS) code to account for propagation losses that occur as functions of altitude and range. Then, the Numerical Electromagnetic Code (NEC2) computes the antenna gain pattern, further scaling the RCS. A Rician likelihood model compares the scaled RCS of the illuminated aircraft with those of the potential targets. To improve the robustness of the result, the algorithm jointly optimizes over feasible orientation profiles and target types via dynamic programming.

The main objective of this thesis is to propose a new perspective in terms of the convergence debate as it is discussed in varieties-of-capitalism (VoC) literature. The initial configuration of VoC stance as well as a part of the literature foresees the convergence of hybrids to a liberal market economy. By revisiting the core arguments of national-systems-of-innovation approach as well as the elaborations of the various critiques of VoC stance, we will propose the opposite. If we are to take &lsquo / innovation&rsquo / as a starting-point of analysis and favor government intervention with respect to it, hybrids are more likely to converge to a political economy that resembles more a coordinated-one. However the meanings of the key terms such as &lsquo / coordinated-market-economy&rsquo / and &lsquo / convergence&rsquo / will be re-evaluated to be able to provide an adequate standpoint in terms of the convergence debate.

According to many, the legal industry is currently suffering from a professionalism problem. The following dissertation is a response to the question, "What can be done about incivility in the practice of law in Florida?" It begins by exploring the literature examining ethics and professionalism, specifically focusing on the role communication plays in the production and reification of patterns of meaning and action. After contextualizing the professionalism problem socio-culturally and historically, the dissertation next provides an overview of some relevant aspects of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (a theoretical communication framework employed to help make sense of the existing state of affairs) and examines how legal scholars and practitioners can begin to communicate their way out of the problem. Following the literature review, the dissertation outlines four research questions and addresses the study's use of the World Cafe design principles and methodology for examining the "professionalism problem." Finally, the dissertation concludes by relating four key findings and an observation as well as addressing five ways in which the research has practical and theoretical implications. In embracing CMM to analyze the conversational patterns and practices of law as they relate to ethics and professionalism, this research theoretically aligns primarily with the sociocultural tradition with some critical and cybernetic overtones. While there are many ways one might examine the professionalism problem, CMM offers an exemplary lens with which to both analyze the problem and proffer a discursive pathway out of the problem. From a communication perspective, the problematics of ethics and professionalism in the practice of law can be understood to originate in the inherent polysemy of language and the incommensurability of moral orders deriving from alternative forms of communication.

In multicell coordinated networks where multiple base stations cooperate to jointly combat interference from adjacent cells and fading to receivers, one of the outstanding questions is what is the role of receive antenna and receiver processing. Multiple receive antennas not only enable additional degrees of freedom at each receiver to combat the other-cell interference but also can change the transmitter design because transmitter and receiver beamforming design is often closely coordinated. In this dissertation, we investigate the role of the multiple receive antennas in multicell cooperative systems under different interference conditions. We then present novel non-iterative and iterative coordinated beamforming and precoding algorithms with different receiver processing. We present comprehensive performance comparison of various multicell cooperative systems and explore the feasibility of achieving much higher throughput via hyper-densification of heterogeneous and small cell networks with mandatory multicell cooperation. / text

Dynamic security limits the power transfer capacity between regions and therefore has an economic impact. The power modulation control of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links can improve the dynamic security of the power system. Having several HVDC links in a system creates the opportunity to coordinate such control, and coordination also ensures that negative interactions do not occur among the controllable devices. This thesis aims to increase dynamic security by coordinating HVDC links, as an alternative to decreasing the transfer capacity. This thesis contributes four control approaches for increasing the dynamic stability, based on feedforward control, adaptive control, optimal control, and exact-feedback linearization control. Depending on the available measurements, dynamic system model, and system topology, one of the developed methods can be applied. The wide-area measurement system provides the central controller with real-time data and sends control signals to the HVDC links. The feedforward controller applies rapid power dispatch, and the strategy used here is to link the N-1 criterion between two systems. The adaptive controller uses the modal analysis approach; based on forecasted load paths, the controller gains are adaptively adjusted to maximize the damping in the system. The optimal controller is designed based on an estimated reduced-order model; system identification develops the model based on the system response. The exact-feedback linearization approach uses a pre-feedback loop to cancel the nonlinearities; a stabilizing controller is designed for the remaining linear system. The conclusion is that coordinating the HVDC links improves the dynamic stability, which makes it possible to increase the transfer capacity. This conclusion is also supported by simulations of each control approach. / QC 20110302

In multi-modal transit networks with several intersecting lines and modes, travel through the network typically requires one or more transfers among transit lines and modes, and as such transfer time is a significant component of transit travel time from the perspective of passengers. Accordingly, efficient transfers are very important to increase the attractiveness and productivity of transit service. This study presents two approaches for the provision of efficient transfers: schedule coordination and real-time CP (Connection Protection) control. The coordination of transit schedules can reduce transfer time significantly. This dissertation develops an optimization model for generating transit timetables that minimize transfer-related times. The model attempts to find an optimal timetable by shifting the existing timetable and/or adding holding time to the timetable to minimize delays associated with transfers from a feeder route to a receiving route. Analytical models are developed to estimate the waiting time of the transfer passengers, and also to determine the influence of the schedule modification on the waiting times of non-transfer passengers. The developed model is evaluated through a case study, and the results show that the model reduces effectively the total transfer and waiting times through the modification of the current schedule. However, even though timetables among intersecting lines may be properly coordinated, an operational control method is necessary to maintain coordinated transfers, which may occasionally be disrupted due to unexpected delays of transit vehicles. A promising approach is to utilize real-time CP control. It involves holding a transit unit in order to wait for another transit unit that is planned to provide a coordinated transfer but has been delayed. This study also develops a CP model to apply a holding control to a receiving run in order to protect the scheduled connection. It incorporates the probabilistic nature of transit operations in formulating a cost function, and accordingly makes more robust decisions for control. The developed model is evaluated and compared with previous models to demonstrate its ability to improve transfer efficiency and reduce the waiting times of affected passengers.

In multi-modal transit networks with several intersecting lines and modes, travel through the network typically requires one or more transfers among transit lines and modes, and as such transfer time is a significant component of transit travel time from the perspective of passengers. Accordingly, efficient transfers are very important to increase the attractiveness and productivity of transit service. This study presents two approaches for the provision of efficient transfers: schedule coordination and real-time CP (Connection Protection) control. The coordination of transit schedules can reduce transfer time significantly. This dissertation develops an optimization model for generating transit timetables that minimize transfer-related times. The model attempts to find an optimal timetable by shifting the existing timetable and/or adding holding time to the timetable to minimize delays associated with transfers from a feeder route to a receiving route. Analytical models are developed to estimate the waiting time of the transfer passengers, and also to determine the influence of the schedule modification on the waiting times of non-transfer passengers. The developed model is evaluated through a case study, and the results show that the model reduces effectively the total transfer and waiting times through the modification of the current schedule. However, even though timetables among intersecting lines may be properly coordinated, an operational control method is necessary to maintain coordinated transfers, which may occasionally be disrupted due to unexpected delays of transit vehicles. A promising approach is to utilize real-time CP control. It involves holding a transit unit in order to wait for another transit unit that is planned to provide a coordinated transfer but has been delayed. This study also develops a CP model to apply a holding control to a receiving run in order to protect the scheduled connection. It incorporates the probabilistic nature of transit operations in formulating a cost function, and accordingly makes more robust decisions for control. The developed model is evaluated and compared with previous models to demonstrate its ability to improve transfer efficiency and reduce the waiting times of affected passengers.