Assisted Living for Our Parents: A Son’s Journey

[Excerpt] I wrote this book to help aging parents and their adult children understand the problems and risks in choosing an ALF, with the hope that they might avoid some of the experiences my mother and I had. My story echoes many other people\u27s stories. But of course I don\u27t pretend that what I will describe happens to everyone entering an ALF

Information-theoretic analysis of MIMO channel sounding

The large majority of commercially available multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio channel measurement devices (sounders) is based on time-division multiplexed switching (TDMS) of a single transmit/receive radio-frequency chain into the elements of a transmit/receive antenna array. While being cost-effective, such a solution can cause significant measurement errors due to phase noise and frequency offset in the local oscillators. In this paper, we systematically analyze the resulting errors and show that, in practice, overestimation of channel capacity by several hundred percent can occur. Overestimation is caused by phase noise (and to a lesser extent frequency offset) leading to an increase of the MIMO channel rank. Our analysis furthermore reveals that the impact of phase errors is, in general, most pronounced if the physical channel has low rank (typical for line-of-sight or poor scattering scenarios). The extreme case of a rank-1 physical channel is analyzed in detail. Finally, we present measurement results obtained from a commercially employed TDMS-based MIMO channel sounder. In the light of the findings of this paper, the results obtained through MIMO channel measurement campaigns using TDMS-based channel sounders should be interpreted with great care.Comment: 99 pages, 14 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Providing guidance on Backstage, a novel digital backchannel for large class teaching

Many articles in the last couple of years argued that it is necessary to promote the active participation of students in lectures with large audiences. One approach to make students actively participate in a lecture is to use a digital backchannel, i.e. a computer-mediated communication platform that allows students to exchange ideas and opinions, without disrupting the lecturer’s discourse. Though, a digital backchannel, in order to be most helpful for learning, have to address the need for guidance of the users interacting. The article presents Backstage, a digital backchannel for large class lectures, and shows how it provides guidance for its users, i.e. the students but also the lecturer. Structural guidance is provided by aligning the usually incoherent backchannel discourse with the presentation slides that are integrated in the backchannel’s user interface. The alignment is thereby asserted by carefully designed backchannel workflows. The article also discusses the guidance of a student’s substantial involvement in both the frontchannel and the backchannel by means of scripts. Through the interactions of guided individuals a social guidance may emerge, leading to a collectively regulated backchannel

Catalyst for Change: Mutual Funds in Canada

The growth of the mutual funds industry in the last thirty years has been spectacular, both in the United States and in Canada. Although a superficial comparison of the industries in these countries might indicate a high degree of similarity, the industry in Canada operates \u27within a surprisingly different framework, both from the standpoint of regulation and taxation. The effect of this framework on fund behavior, however, is not easily predictable. This in-depth examination of the Canadian mutual funds industry describes the framework \u27within which that industry operates and the resulting effects on fund behavior. In doing so, it provides the basis for a comparison between the mutual funds industry of Canada and that of the United States which, at least by inference, suggests that certain patterns of fund behavior may be endemic to the industry, whether it be Canadian or American, and, accordingly, in regulating that industry that there are certain factors worthy of consideration, no matter where in North America the industry is operating

Banking in Canada

The means by which banking is regulated in Canada is quite distinct from the methods which are employed in the United States. Moreover, the jurisdictional boundary between provincial regulation of securities and federal regulation of banking has created a regulatory penumbral zone. Additionally, the fact that the present regulation is largely the product of consultation between the banking industry and the government raises the question of the effectiveness of a regulatory scheme which is essentially consensual. The banking industry in Canada, as \u27well as that of the United States, appears to be departing from its traditional role. The extent to which current regulation will be effective in these areas is perhaps the most important question confronted in this comprehensive treatment of Canadian banking

Banking in Canada

The means by which banking is regulated in Canada is quite distinct from the methods which are employed in the United States. Moreover, the jurisdictional boundary between provincial regulation of securities and federal regulation of banking has created a regulatory penumbral zone. Additionally, the fact that the present regulation is largely the product of consultation between the banking industry and the government raises the question of the effectiveness of a regulatory scheme which is essentially consensual. The banking industry in Canada, as \u27well as that of the United States, appears to be departing from its traditional role. The extent to which current regulation will be effective in these areas is perhaps the most important question confronted in this comprehensive treatment of Canadian banking

Catalyst for Change: Mutual Funds in Canada

The growth of the mutual funds industry in the last thirty years has been spectacular, both in the United States and in Canada. Although a superficial comparison of the industries in these countries might indicate a high degree of similarity, the industry in Canada operates \u27within a surprisingly different framework, both from the standpoint of regulation and taxation. The effect of this framework on fund behavior, however, is not easily predictable. This in-depth examination of the Canadian mutual funds industry describes the framework \u27within which that industry operates and the resulting effects on fund behavior. In doing so, it provides the basis for a comparison between the mutual funds industry of Canada and that of the United States which, at least by inference, suggests that certain patterns of fund behavior may be endemic to the industry, whether it be Canadian or American, and, accordingly, in regulating that industry that there are certain factors worthy of consideration, no matter where in North America the industry is operating