The transition fundions for the correlated random walk with two absorbing boundaries are derived by means of a combinatorial construction which is based on Krattenthaler's Theorem for counting lattice paths with turns. Results for walks with one boundary and for unrestricted walks are presented as special cases. Finally we give an asymptotic formula, which proves to be useful for computational purposes. (author's abstract) / Series: Forschungsberichte / Institut für Statistik

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references and vita.

The scaling required to accommodate faster chip performance in microelectronic devices has necessitated a reduction in the dimensions of copper interconnects at the back end of the line. The constant downscaling of copper interconnects has resulted in changes to the microstructure, and these variations are known to impact electrical resistivity and reliability issues in interconnects. In this work, a novel electron diffraction technique called Diffraction Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (D-STEM) has been developed and coupled with precession electron microscopy to obtain quantitative local texture information in damascene copper lines (1.8 \mu m to 70 nm in width) with a spatial resolution of less than 5 nm. Misorientation and trace analysis has been performed to investigate the the grain boundary distribution in these lines. The results reveal strong variations in texture and grain boundary distribution of the copper lines upon downscaling. 1.8 \mu m wide lines exhibit strong <111> normal texture and comprise large bamboo-type grains. Upon downscaling to 180 nm, a {111} <110> biaxial texture has been observed. In contrast, narrower lines of widths 120 nm and 70 nm reveal sidewall growth of {111} grains and a dominant <110> normal texture. The fraction of coherent twin boundaries also reduces with decreasing line width. The microstructure changes from bamboo-type in wider lines to one comprising clusters of small grains separated by high angle boundaries in the vicinity of large grains. The evolution of such a microstructure has been discussed in terms of overall energy minimization and dimensional constraints. Finite element analysis has been performed to correlate misorientations between grains and local thermal stresses associated with stress migration. Effect of variations in the copper interconnect microstructure on electromigration flux divergence has also been discussed. / text

published_or_final_version / Physics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Public toilets are the missing link in Western Culture and are the last spaces in architectural projects that are planned, designed, and budgeted, perhaps because they are viewed as unsafe, unhygienic, dirty, stinky, and lacking. This practicum applies theories of disease, toilet privileging, gender-segregation and boundaries articulated by Clara Greed, Barbara Penner and Kathryn Anthony, among others. The project investigates sites at Osborne Station, Pan Am Pool and St. Vital Centre located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The proposed Osborne Station public toilets are designed to meet the needs of a variety of transit users. The Pan Am Pool requires various zones to meet the requirements for women, families and unisex spaces. The St. Vital Centre public toilets are designed as a place to visit where gender boundaries are blurred unconventionally. The zones blend spatial areas that range from gender-segregated to those that are openly accessible to everyone. This practicum project proposes models for improving the design of public toilets through education and by implementing alternative regulations that should be considered for inclusion into the National Building Code of Canada.

We are accustomed to meanings, signs, language, and the constraints, categories, and concepts which make-up what I acknowledge as boundaries. These are integral for interaction with people, with other forms of life, with landscapes, and with ourselves. Without boundaries there would not be progression or understanding with that which is "the other."Boundaries are categorized into four areas within these creative projects. They are environment, language, states of being, and destination. Within the categories various projects explore what create intangible separations which denote the boundary and create a visible representation of each.Within each category projects are organized by content, objective, and outcome. Some results proved to be more successful than others by effectively conveying meaning through the various imagery and objects of the installations. Often, a viewer's preference f one project over another was due to the use of a specific medium, building method, and overall design rather than the concept or idea which inspired it.The paradoxical notion of these explorations is due to the exemplification of the connections surrounding and, perhaps, instigating each boundary. Attempts to visibly explore boundaries through their connections provide glimpses of built separation markers (environment), words and phrases which may separate or connect (language), alterations of physicality (states of being), and the ambiguous quality which denotes a place (destination) such that each becomes discernable but, more importantly, that each may be surpassed. It is through the visibility of the categories and understanding of their connections in which the boundaries go beyond manifesting themselves through the viewers' collective questioning the possibilities. / Department of Art

Using a novel deal/patent dataset from 1986 through 2005, this paper explores the role of knowledge flow on the firm boundary decision. I use patent self-citations and cross-citations from the United States patent database as a proxy to measure knowledge flow between and within firms. When analyzing partnerships (strategic alliances and joint ventures), I find that firms with a higher percentage of patent self-citations are more likely to choose a more integrative boundary. Additionally, the level of integration chosen is positively related to the frequency of cross-citations between firms following the formation of the partnership. Firms in partnerships also see higher abnormal returns around the partnership announcement date when their partnering firm has a higher percentage of self-citations. I find weak to no evidence that these results hold for mergers/acquisitions. Overall, the evidence suggests that knowledge assets do play a pivotal role in the firm boundary choice.

Public toilets are the missing link in Western Culture and are the last spaces in architectural projects that are planned, designed, and budgeted, perhaps because they are viewed as unsafe, unhygienic, dirty, stinky, and lacking. This practicum applies theories of disease, toilet privileging, gender-segregation and boundaries articulated by Clara Greed, Barbara Penner and Kathryn Anthony, among others. The project investigates sites at Osborne Station, Pan Am Pool and St. Vital Centre located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The proposed Osborne Station public toilets are designed to meet the needs of a variety of transit users. The Pan Am Pool requires various zones to meet the requirements for women, families and unisex spaces. The St. Vital Centre public toilets are designed as a place to visit where gender boundaries are blurred unconventionally. The zones blend spatial areas that range from gender-segregated to those that are openly accessible to everyone. This practicum project proposes models for improving the design of public toilets through education and by implementing alternative regulations that should be considered for inclusion into the National Building Code of Canada.

This thesis focuses on the aesthetics of the sense of touch – haptic aesthetics – in contemporary Canadian diasporic literature. My reading of diasporic embodiment will discuss three contemporary novels, Anne Michaels’s Fugitive Pieces (1996), Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For (2005), and David Chariandy’s Soucouyant (2007), for what these novels suggest about the incoherent nature of cultural boundaries and the alternative possibilities for embodiment and community formation through an analysis of the sense of touch. Set in the urban and suburban spaces of Toronto, Ontario, these narratives represent diasporic bodies and experiences less through concrete acts of social, historical, or biomedical identification, and more so through creative tactile and affective gestures of agency and community. I explore the ways in which diasporic subjects in these novels negotiate their biomedical, sociocultural, and geographic positions through haptic metaphoric processes of what I call “skin diving.” / Graduate / 0401 / 0352 / 0422 / nbirchbayley@gmail.com

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Swearing is a subject largely ignored in academic circles but impossible to ignore in the health workplace. Despite its prevalence there has been little academic research into swearing, and certainly none on its impact on nursing staff. Nurses are, of all health workers, most likely to be targets of verbal aggression with up to 100% of nurses in mental health settings reporting verbal abuse. Nurses encounter swearing from patients and their carers, staff, and managers, and use swearwords in communication with each other, but there is no reference in the literature to the effects on nurses of exposure to swearing. This study set out to rectify that lack of research into swearing by answering three main questions: 1. What is the extent of swearing /verbal aggression in a health care setting? 2. What are the implications of swearing for a therapeutic encounter? 3. What is the impact of swearing on nurses? A mixed methods approach was employed. Phase one of the study explored the context of care, utilising the Overt Aggression Scale to describe the nature and extent of swearing and verbal aggression across a range of acute and long-term inpatient mental health settings. Data were derived from 9,623 reports spanning a 10-year period. The sample comprised 384 (72.1%) males and 148 (27.9%) females aged between 9.5 years and 93.3, mean age 45.6, SD=21.00 years. Most frequently reported over the 10-year period was verbal aggression; incidents involving females occurred mainly in connection with the more severe levels of verbal aggression. “Psychosis” was recorded as the main perceived cause of verbal aggression, in itself an insufficient explanation. A rising tendency to cite psychosis emerged as the level of aggression rose and, on average, 1.9 interventions were recorded for each aggressive incident. Phase two surveyed 107 nurses across three health care settings paediatrics, adult mental health, and child and adolescent mental health – by means of a questionnaire designed to elicit a combination of both qualitative and quantitative data, the Nursing Swearing Impact Questionnaire, which included three standardised instruments. The quantitative data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. High levels of swearing were reported, 29% of nurses being sworn at 1 to 5 times per week and 7% “continuously.” A similar incidence occurred within the nursing team, but being sworn at in anger by another staff member was rare and the major use was in jest or in conversation. The study failed to find significant differences between mental health and paediatric settings in the frequency of swearing but did find gender-based differences. High levels of distress caused by being subjected to swearing were evident, particularly when the aggressor was a relative or carer of a patient. Moreover, the respondents appeared to have only a limited range of interventions for use in dealing with the experience of being sworn at. However, what emerges strongly from the data is the extent to which swearing is culture- and context-bound, and the fact that nurses share many of the views and attitudes about swearing held by society at large. The culmination of the findings suggests that swearing is both widespread and underreported in a range of health contexts. The implications of swearing are poorly understood by nurses. These, and the magnitude of their distress in being subjected to it, render them ill-equipped to deal with the experience. The concomitant negative effects on empathy result in the nurses’ distancing themselves from the patient when confronted and implementing only a restricted range of interventions and detrimental effects on the quality of the therapeutic relationship will have negative effects on patient outcomes. Given the levels of swearing reported and its consequences on the therapeutic relationship, further research is warranted.