Advanced Adhesion Strength Testing Methods of Thin Film Multilayers in Electronic Packaging Systems

With the continued miniaturization and increasing performance of electronic devices, new technical challenges have arisen. One such issue is delamination occurring at critical interfaces inside the device. This major reliability issue can occur during the manufacturing process or during normal use of the device. Proper evaluation of the adhesion strength of critical interfaces early in the product development cycle can help reduce reliability issues and time-to-market of the product. However, conventional adhesion strength testing is inherently limited in the face of package miniaturization, which brings about further technical challenges to quantify design integrity and reliability. Although there are many different interfaces in today's advanced electronic packages, they can be generalized into two main categories: 1) rigid to rigid connections with a thin flexible polymeric layer in between, or 2) a thin film membrane on a rigid structure. Knowing that every technique has its own advantages and disadvantages, multiple testing methods must be enhanced and developed to be able to accommodate all the interfaces encountered for emerging electronic packaging technologies. For evaluating the adhesion strength of high adhesion strength interfaces in thin multilayer structures a novel adhesion test configuration called “single cantilever adhesion test (SCAT)” is proposed and implemented for an epoxy molding compound (EMC) and photo solder resist (PSR) interface. The test method is then shown to be capable of comparing and selecting the stronger of two potential EMC/PSR material sets. Additionally, a theoretical approach for establishing the applicable testing domain for a four-point bending test method was presented. For evaluating polymeric films on rigid substrates, major testing challenges are encountered for reducing testing scatter and for factoring in the potentially degrading effect of environmental conditioning on the material properties of the film. An advanced blister test with predefined area test method was developed that considers an elasto-plastic analytical solution and implemented for a conformal coating used to prevent tin whisker growth. The advanced blister testing with predefined area test method was then extended by employing a numerical method for evaluating the adhesion strength when the polymer’s film properties are unknown.

Analysis of N-nitrosames in water using micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) and development of online and offline methods of extraction and enrichment of neutral polar analytes

Evaluation of the quality of the environment is essential for human wellness as pollutants in trace amounts can cause serious health problem. Nitrosamines are a group of compounds that are considered potential carcinogens and can be found in drinking water (as disinfection byproducts), foods, beverages and cosmetics. To monitor the level of these compounds to minimize daily intakes, fast and reliable analytical techniques are required. As these compounds are relatively highly polar, extraction and enrichment from environmental samples (aqueous) are challenging. Also, the trend of analytical techniques toward the reduction of sample size and minimization of organic solvent use demands new methods of analysis. In light of fulfilling these requirements, a new method of online preconcentration tailored to an electrokinetic chromatography is introduced. In this method, electroosmotic flow (EOF) was suppressed to increase the interaction time between analyte and micellar phase, therefore the only force to mobilize the neutral analytes is the interaction of analyte with moving micelles. In absence of EOF, polarity of applied potential was switched (negative or positive) to force (anionic or cationic) micelles to move toward the detector. To avoid the excessive band broadening due to longer analysis time caused by slow moving micelles, auxiliary pressure was introduced to boost the micelle movement toward the detector using an in house designed and built apparatus. Applying the external auxiliary pressure significantly reduced the analysis times without compromising separation efficiency. Parameters, such as type of surfactants, composition of background electrolyte (BGE), type of capillary, matrix effect, organic modifiers, etc., were evaluated in optimization of the method. The enrichment factors for targeted analytes were impressive, particularly; cationic surfactants were shown to be suitable for analysis of nitrosamines due to their ability to act as hydrogen bond donors. Ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO) also showed remarkable results in term of peak shapes and number of theoretical plates. It was shown that the separation results were best when a high conductivity sample was paired with a BGE of lower conductivity. Using higher surfactant concentrations (up to 200 mM SDS) than usual (50 mM SDS) for micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) improved the sweeping. A new method for micro-extraction and enrichment of highly polar neutral analytes (N-Nitrosamines in particular) based on three-phase drop micro-extraction was introduced and its performance studied. In this method, a new device using some easy-to-find components was fabricated and its operation and application demonstrated. Compared to conventional extraction methods (liquid-liquid extraction), consumption of organic solvents and operation times were significantly lower.

Conservation value, biodiversity value and methods of assessment in regenerating and human disturbed tropical forest

Although the value of primary forests for biodiversity conservation is well known, the potential biodiversity and conservation value of regenerating forests remains controversial. Many factors likely contribute to this, including: 1. the variable ages of regenerating forests being studied (often dominated by relatively young regenerating forests); 2. the potential for confounding on-going human disturbance (such as logging and hunting); 3. the relatively low number of multi-taxa studies; 4. the lack of studies that directly compare different historic disturbances within the same location; 5. contrasting patterns from different survey methodologies and the paucity of knowledge on the impacts across different vertical levels of rainforest biodiversity (often due to a lack of suitable methodologies available to assess them). We also know relatively little as to how biodiversity is affected by major current impacts, such as unmarked rainforest roads, which contribute to this degradation of habitat and fragmentation. This thesis explores the potential biodiversity value of regenerating rainforests under the best of scenarios and seeks to understand more about the impact of current human disturbance to biodiversity; data comes from case studies from the Manu and Sumaco Biosphere Reserves in the Western Amazon. Specifically, I compare overall biodiversity and conservation value of a best case regenerating rainforest site with a selection of well-studied primary forest sites and with predicted species lists for the region; including a focus on species of key conservation concern. I then investigate the biodiversity of the same study site in reference to different types of historic anthropogenic disturbance. Following this I investigate the impacts to biodiversity from an unmarked rainforest road. In order to understand more about the differential effects of habitat disturbance on arboreal diversity I directly assess how patterns of butterfly biodiversity vary between three vertical strata. Although assessments within the canopy have been made for birds, invertebrates and bats, very few studies have successfully targeted arboreal mammals. I therefore investigate the potential of camera traps for inventorying arboreal mammal species in comparison with traditional methodologies. Finally, in order to investigate the possibility that different survey methodologies might identify different biodiversity patterns in habitat disturbance assessments, I investigate whether two different but commonly used survey methodologies used to assess amphibians, indicate the same or different responses of amphibian biodiversity to historic habitat change by people. The regenerating rainforest study site contained high levels of species richness; both in terms of alpha diversity found in nearby primary forest areas (87% ±3.5) and in terms of predicted primary forest diversity from the region (83% ±6.7). This included 89% (39 out of 44) of the species of high conservation concern predicted for the Manu region. Faunal species richness in once completely cleared regenerating forest was on average 13% (±9.8) lower than historically selectively logged forest. The presence of the small unmarked road significantly altered levels of faunal biodiversity for three taxa, up to and potentially beyond 350m into the forest interior. Most notably, the impact on biodiversity extended to at least 32% of the whole reserve area. The assessment of butterflies across strata showed that different vertical zones within the same rainforest responded differently in areas with different historic human disturbance. A comparison between forest regenerating after selective logging and forest regenerating after complete clearance, showed that there was a 17% greater reduction in canopy species richness in the historically cleared forest compared with the terrestrial community. Comparing arboreal camera traps with traditional ground-based techniques suggests that camera traps are an effective tool for inventorying secretive arboreal rainforest mammal communities and detect a higher number of cryptic species. Finally, the two survey methodologies used to assess amphibian communities identified contrasting biodiversity patterns in a human modified rainforest; one indicated biodiversity differences between forests with different human disturbance histories, whereas the other suggested no differences between forest disturbance types. Overall, in this thesis I find that the conservation and biodiversity value of regenerating and human disturbed tropical forest can potentially contribute to rainforest biodiversity conservation, particularly in the best of circumstances. I also highlight the importance of utilising appropriate study methodologies that to investigate these three-dimensional habitats, and contribute to the development of methodologies to do so. However, care should be taken when using different survey methodologies, which can provide contrasting biodiversity patterns in response to human disturbance.

Development of a technique for the formation of discrete microconnection; internal research.

Mode of access: Internet.

Unconventional Methods of Marketing Communication

In the era of an information revolution customers come in contact with huge numbers of marketing messages in their everyday lives. This leads to so called, information noise, which may result in many messages going unnoticed. Thus marketing managers are forced to search for more effectively ways of getting customers’ attention and are more willingly to use unconventional promotional methods based on using original forms or places in an effort to create the element of surprise and make their message more eye-catching for the targeted audience. This kind of move tends to evoke strong emotions, motiving readers to pass the message on. Creating such a buzz around brand name would also enhance the campaign’s effect. Unfortunately, this form of communication also brings with it some negative effects due to controversial or taboo topics connected with sensitive social issues. An analysis of the advertising methods used by the owners of the most powerful Polish brands shows that there is some evidence of the use of such methods in Poland. Nevertheless unconventional advertising methods are not a commonly used practice.

Search of symmetric composition methods of symmetric integrators

Composition methods are useful when solving Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) as they increase the order of accuracy of a given basic numerical integration scheme. We will focus on sy-mmetric composition methods involving some basic second order symmetric integrator with different step sizes [17]. The introduction of symmetries into these methods simplifies the order conditions and reduces the number of unknowns. Several authors have worked in the search of the coefficients of these type of methods: the best method of order 8 has 17 stages [24], methods of order 8 and 15 stages were given in [29, 39, 40], 10-order methods of 31, 33 and 35 stages have been also found [24, 34]. In this work some techniques that we have built to obtain 10-order symmetric composition methods of symmetric integrators of s = 31 stages (16 order conditions) are explored. Given some starting coefficients that satisfy the simplest five order conditions, the process followed to obtain the coefficients that satisfy the sixteen order conditions is provided.

Effect of different methods of soil preparation on soil moisture loss, weed growth and soil resistance to penetration.

The effect of different methods of soil preparation on soil moisture loss, weed growth and soil resistance to penetration has been quantified for the Latosols of Bebedouro experiment station of CPATSA-EMBRAPA, Petrolina,PE, Brazil. The methods studied are manual preparation, preparation by animal drawn wheeled tool carrier and tractorized implements. The drying characteristics of three fields with different soil physical properties were studied prior to conducting the experiment. The different methods of soil preparation caused the soil moisture loss differently. The plot prepared by animal drawn tool carrier retained more moisture for longer time even at deeper layers. The soil resistance to penetration on the surface increased with time with little variation at deeper layers.

The intellectual structure of research in hospitality management: A literature review using bibliometric methods of the journal International Journal of Hospitality Management

The purpose of this study is to analyze the existing literature on hospitality management from all the research papers published in The International Journal of Hospitality Management (IJHM) between 2008 and 2014. The authors apply bibliometric methods – in particular, author citation and co-citation analyses (ACA) – to identify the main research lines within this scientific field; in other words, its ‘intellectual structure’. Social network analysis (SNA) is also used to perform a visualization of this structure. The results of the analysis allow us to define the different research lines or fronts which shape the intellectual structure of research on hospitality management.

Evaluating the effectiveness of discrete trial procedures for teaching receptive discrimination to children with autism spectrum disorders

Research has found that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show significant deficits in receptive language skills (Wiesmer, Lord, & Esler, 2010). One of the primary goals of applied behavior analytic intervention is to improve the communication skills of children with autism by teaching receptive discriminations. Both receptive discriminations and receptive language entail matching spoken words with corresponding objects, symbols (e.g., pictures or words), actions, people, and so on (Green, 2001). In order to develop receptive language skills, children with autism often undergo discrimination training within the context of discrete trial training. This training entails teaching the learner how to respond differentially to different stimuli (Green, 2001). It is through discrimination training that individuals with autism learn and develop language (Lovaas, 2003). The present study compares three procedures for teaching receptive discriminations: (1) simple/conditional (Procedure A), (2) conditional only (Procedure B), and (3) conditional discrimination of two target cards (Procedure C). Six children, ranging in age from 2-years-old to 5-years-old, with an autism diagnosis were taught how to receptively discriminate nine sets of stimuli. Results suggest that the extra training steps included in the simple/conditional and conditional only procedures may not be necessary to teach children with autism how to receptively discriminate. For all participants, Procedure C appeared to be the most efficient and effective procedure for teaching young children with autism receptive discriminations. Response maintenance and generalization probes conducted one-month following the end of training indicate that even though Procedure C resulted in less training sessions overall, no one procedure resulted in better maintenance and generalization than the others. In other words, more training sessions, as evident with the simple/conditional and conditional only procedures, did not facilitate participants’ ability to accurately respond or generalize one-month following training. The present study contributes to the literature on what is the most efficient and effective way to teach receptive discrimination during discrete trial training to children with ASD. These findings are critical as research shows that receptive language skills are predictive of better outcomes and adaptive behaviors in the future. ^

Evaluating Methods of Calculating the Fixed Fee on Professional Service Contracts

The South Carolina Department of Transportation routinely retains Professional Consulting Engineering firms to provide engineering design and related professional services for the preparation of construction plans or design-build Request for Proposal bid packages for a wide variety of Federal-aid Highway Program roadway and bridge construction projects throughout South Carolina.The purpose of this project is to examine the current process of determining a "Fair and Reasonable" fixed fee for professional service contracts and to evaluate possible alternative methods including practices in other states that may improve the process, particularly in light of the considerable variation in audited overhead rates among consulting firms. In reviewing such alternative methods particular attention will be given to evaluating the potential impact of the method as an incentive to consulting firms to effectively manage their overhead costs.

Methods of earth building in the Huila Province, Angola

In Angola, the construction made of raw earth is a cultural heritage widely used by low income households, representing over 80% of the population [1, 3]. In Huila province is evident construction in raw earth in a large scale, either in urban or in periurban and rural areas. The construction methods follow the ancestral standards, distributed throughout the region of Huila, being built by the several ethnic groups. Among the construction techniques in earth, stand out: the adobe, wattle-and-daub and more recently on CEB (Compressed Earth Block). The type of soil used to make the adobes is mainly silty-clayed sand [1]. The most applied materials are: rods, reeds, wood, grass, straw, soil and stone, almost with the same characteristics [2]. The manufacture of adobe, consists essentially in mixing clay and grass (plant fibers), then put the mixture inside a wooden mold, having a size of 42 cm long and 18 cm high and taking three to four days to dry and be applied in housing construction. The application of these materials makes the construction less expensive because they are collected, transformed and applied by the owner himself of housing without any project, based only on the result of the practice and experience acquired from their ancestors. They are simple constructions, presenting a typology of grouped and isolated single-family housing, ranging between 2 and 3 bedrooms [2]. The construction techniques used in such small housings have positive environmental aspects, both as regards the materials employed, such as the manner in which the constructions are raised, showing special concerns for the quality improvement of them, as regards the resistance, durability and comfort [4].

Comparison of Explicit and Implicit Methods of Cross-Cultural Learning in an International Classroom

The paper addresses a gap in the literature concerning the difference between enhanced and not enhanced cross-cultural learning in an international classroom. The objective of the described research was to clarify if the environment of international classrooms could enhance cross-cultural competences significantly enough or if additional focus on cross-cultural learning as an explicit objective of learning activities would add substantially to the experience. The research question was defined as “how can a specific exercise focused on cross-cultural learning enhance the cross-cultural skills of university students in an international classroom?”. Surveys were conducted among interna- tional students in three leading Central-European Universities in Lithuania, Poland and Hungary to measure the increase of their cross-cultural competences. The Lithuanian and Polish classes were composed of international students and concentrated on International Management/Business topics (explicit method). The Hungarian survey was done in a general business class that just happened to be international in its composition (implicit method). Overall, our findings prove that the implicit method resulted in comparable, somewhat even stronger effectiveness than the explicit method. The study method included the analyses of students’ individual increases in each study dimension and construction of a compound measure to note the overall results. Our findings confirm the power of the international classroom as a stimulating environment for latent cross-cultural learning even without specific exercises focused on cross-cultural learning itself. However, the specific exercise did induce additional learning, especially related to cross-cultural awareness and communication with representatives of other cultures, even though the extent of that learning may be interpreted as underwhelming. The main conclusion from the study is that the diversity of the students engaged in a project provided an environment that supported cross-cultural learning, even without specific culture-focused reflections or exercises.

Noises: a Nuisance and a Resource. Development of New Decomposition Methods of Noisy Data

Noise is constant presence in measurements. Its origin is related to the microscopic properties of matter. Since the seminal work of Brown in 1828, the study of stochastic processes has gained an increasing interest with the development of new mathematical and analytical tools. In the last decades, the central role that noise plays in chemical and physiological processes has become recognized. The dual role of noise as nuisance/resource pushes towards the development of new decomposition techniques that divide a signal into its deterministic and stochastic components. In this thesis I show how methods based on Singular Spectrum Analysis have the right properties to fulfil the previously mentioned requirement. During my work I applied SSA to different signals of interest in chemistry: I developed a novel iterative procedure for the denoising of powder X-ray diffractograms; I “denoised” bi-dimensional images from experiments of electrochemiluminescence imaging of micro-beads obtaining new insight on ECL mechanism. I also used Principal Component Analysis to investigate the relationship between brain electrophysiological signals and voice emission.

Influence of cultivar choice, sowing date and abiotic stresses on tocopherol content and composition in Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz

In Europe, the current demand for vegetable oils and the need to find alternative crops for the regions most affected by climate change (i.e., Mediterranean basin) may be a launchpad for camelina [Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz] to be steadily introduced in European cropping systems. Camelina is mainly known for the unique composition of its oil, with a fatty acids profile including more than 50% content of essential linoleic and linolenic fatty acids, and a high tocopherol content. Being tocopherols part of the vitamin E family of antioxidants, the added value of growing camelina in harsh environments could be the enhancement of tocopherol content in camelina oil, thus having a more stable and nutritionally valuable product. With the final purpose of fully valorize camelina as a tolerant, valuable-oil producing crop for the Mediterranean basin, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether and how sowing date, cultivar choice, and abiotic stresses can affect tocopherol content and composition in camelina oil. The results showed that cultivar choice and growing conditions influenced total tocopherol, γ-tocopherol, and α-tocopherol contents. Moreover, heat stress trial revealed that high temperature increased α-tocopherol content, while no effect was observed in total tocopherols and in γ-tocopherol content. Finally, drought increased total tocopherols in camelina, and in drought-sensitive lines an increase in α-tocopherol was observed. This study allowed to acquire awareness on camelina resistance to abiotic stresses, coupled with a better knowledge on tocopherol content and composition in relation to cultivar, sowing date, and abiotic stresses. This will have an impact for the introduction of camelina as an alternative crop in harsher environments, such as the Mediterranean basin, to produce an oil suitable for food, feed, and industrial applications.