Cold-formed steel framing of residential and light commercial buildings continues to grow in popularity due to its structural and material advantages. The North American steel industry is actively performing research studies and developing design standards to assist in the cost-effectiveness of cold-formed steel in these markets. Cold-formed steel L-headers are structural components used over wall openings to transfer the loads to adjacent king studs. Recently, there has been an increased interest in L-headers among homebuilders primarily due to their ease of installation and low material cost. Design of the L-headers in North America is currently governed by the North American Standard for Cold Formed Steel Framing – Header Design, in combination with the North American Specification for Design of Cold Formed Steel Structural Members. However, the design provisions in the AISI - Header Design Standard are particularly limiting. For instance, the method for evaluation of span deflections for both single and double L-headers, and uplift flexural strength for single L-headers is currently not available primarily due to lack of research on the issues. Presented in this thesis are the findings from an extensive laboratory testing program of full-scale single and double cold-formed steel L-headers. The objective of the research was to investigate the structural behavior of L-headers under both gravity and uplift loads. From the analysis, improved ultimate flexural strength design expressions and new vertical deflection expressions for single and double L-header assemblies were developed. The concept of semi-rigid members was introduced to evaluate the flexural behavior and deflection performance of L-header assemblies.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the United States was gripped by an intense anxiety about its national security. While primarily triggered by the external threat of the Soviet Union, this anxiety was especially centred on internal threats, real and imagined. Most previous studies have focused on the so-called Red Scare, the hunt for Communists and other political undesirables. This was accompanied by a parallel Lavender Scare, an assault on homosexuality in American culture, especially public service. Homosexuality had been grounds for dismissal from the Civil Service since the 19th Century, but Cold War anxiety about gays in government became so great that some in the press began referring to it as a Panic on the Potomac. Fear of sexual subversion became so integrated into the larger national security obsession that, by 1955, fully 1 in every 5 American workers was subject to a combination of loyalty and security restrictions, related to both political and moral categories of unsuitability. Yet this episode has remained a largely forgotten footnote in American Cold War experience. The homophobia that characterized the early Cold War was new, more intense, and unique to that moment in history. Full-scale investigations and purges of suspected gays from the Civil Service began in 1950, but possessed deeper roots in the politics and culture of the era. They were stimulated by a combination of Cold War anxiety, post-war conservatism, and a changing conception of the nature of homosexuality. The effects of the purges would include not only widespread dismissals and intensified repression of gays and lesbians, but also the emergence of gay activism and the concept of a distinct gay minority. The evolving nature of gay identity, especially self-identity, is ultimately central to the thesis topic. This thesis is one of a small, but growing number of works that attempt to comprehensively examine the origins, characteristics, and impacts of the Lavender Scare. It draws on a wide range of sources, including the most recent specialized studies and the best available primary sources, including archival materials, first-hand recollections of events, and newly declassified government documents.

Cold Counsels and Hot Tempers: The Development of the Germanic Amazon in Old Norse Literature will trace how the evolution of the powerful woman in literature shaped the development of female characters in the classical Icelandic family sagas and the Fornaldarsögur, or later sagas of ancient times. The thesis will focus on the conception and representation of the proverb köld eru kvenna ráð cold are the counsels of women specifically tracing the function of women in feud structures and folk motifs that involve assault and acts of revenge. In the early Germanic sources, women are direct participants in violence; they train themselves in warfare, take up weapons, begin feuds, avoid unwanted marriages and hold kingdoms through force of arms. In later Norse literature, women rely on verbal persuasion to force men into action; they use goading, seduction, and insult to engage men in violence. Cold Counsels and Hot Tempers will examine these changes in womens roles and investigate the different methods women use to access power.

In 1959, Capote’s nonfiction novel entitled, In Cold Blood was written using artistic methods related to fictional writing.  In consciously writing in this manner, Capote revealed a controversial shift away from a more objectivity based, journalistic truth, prevalent at the time. By using these methods to portray in particular Perry Smith, Capote has provoked doubts surrounding his commitment to “truth” within the book.  Using a narratological analysis of certain significant passages of the book, Capote’s presence and a notable relation he has to Perry is implied and brought to the forefront.  In turn, this essay looks through these passages from the perspective of the genre of autobiography.  From this viewpoint, how the reader is able to uncover Capote’s “intentions” by identifying with and presenting himself through Perry in the narrative, is discussed. This essay concludes with the claim that due to Capote’s use of these artistic methods, the reader is provided with an autobiographical dimension to the narrative.  Consequently, the essay claims that it is because such autobiographical dimensions are described by Linda Anderson (in her book Autobiography) as having an “honest intention which then guarantees the truth of the writing” (3), that Truman Capote’s “true account of a multiple murder and its consequences”, [own emphasis added] should thus be justifiable, and in his way, honestly true.

Bismuth telluride based compounds is known to be the best thermoelectric materials within the room temperature regime. In this study, the n-type Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric alloy was synthesized by powder metallurgy method. The Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 thermoelectric materials were prepared via the ball milling, cold pressing, and sintering processes. The effects of sintering time and temperature on the microstructures and thermoelectric properties were investigated and discussed. The X-ray diffraction patterns of Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 reveal that the compounds are single phase after the sintering processes. And the experimental results showed that the pores was reduced by the increased sintering temperature and time. According to the measurement results, the Seebeck coefficient was decreased at firest and then increased by the increased sintering temperature. The optimal Seebeck coefficient of -156.936(£gV/K) was obtained as the sample was sintered at 350¢XC for 3h. The results also showed that the thermal conductivity was increased by the increased sintering temperature, whereas the electrical resistivity was reduced. The lowest thermal conductivity 0.816 (W/m¡EK) was obtained as the sample was sintered at 350¢XC for 1h. On the other hand, the electrical resistivity of 1.6999¡Ñ10-5(£[-m) was obtained as the sample was sintered at 450¢XC for 2h. The figure of merit of 0.31 was obtained at room temperature as the sample was sintered at 375¢XC for 2h.

This dissertation proposes to examine the conspiracy narratives of Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, and Leslie Marmon Silko that retell American experience with the Cold War and its culture of paranoia for the last half of the twentieth century. Witnessing the resurgence of Cold War paranoia and its dramatic twilight during the period from late 70s to mid-80s and the sudden advent of the post-Cold War era that has provoked a volatile mixture of euphoria and melancholia, the work of DeLillo, Didion, and Silko explores the changing mode of Cold War paranoid epistemology and contemplates its conditions of narrative possibility in the post-Cold War era. From his earlier novels such as Players, The Names, and Mao II to his latest novel about 9/11 Falling Man, DeLillo has interrogated how the American paradigm of paranoid national self-fashioning envisioned by Cold War liberals stands up to its equally paranoid post-Cold War nemesis, terrorism. In his epic dramatization of Cold War history in Underworld, DeLillo mythologizes the doomed sense of paranoid connectivity and collective belonging experienced during the Cold War era. In doing so, DeLillo attempts to contain the uncertainty and instability of the post-Cold War or what Francis Fukuyama calls "post-historical" landscape of global cognitive mapping within the nostalgically secured memory of the American crowd who had lived the paranoid history of the Cold War. In her novels that investigate the history of American involvements in the Third World from Eisenhower through Kennedy to Reagan, Didion employs the minimalist narrative style to curb, extenuate, or condense the paranoid narratives of Cold War imperial romance most recently exemplified in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. In her latest Cold War romance novel The Last Thing He Wanted, Didion reassesses her earlier narrative tactic of "calculated ellipsis" employed in A Book of Common Prayer and Democracy and seeks to commemorate individual romances behind the spectacles of Cold War myth of frontier. Departing from the rhetoric of "hybrid patriotism" in Ceremony, a Native American story of spiritual healing and lyricism that works to appease white paranoia and guilt associated with the atomic bomb, Silko in Almanac of the Dead seeks to subvert the paranoid regime of Cold War imperialism inflicted upon Native Americans and Third World subjects by mobilizing alternative conspiracy narratives from the storytelling tradition of Native American spirituality. Silko?s postnational spiritual conspiracy gestures toward a global cognitive mapping beyond the American Cold War paradigm of "paranoid oneworldedness".

The thesis is mainly focused on the investigation of optimal process operation, which is appropriate for new-type stacking package product to achieve the assembly products of two or more packages. By melting solder balls to form the stacking package products, the eventual goals of lightness, thinness and smallness will be accomplished. To increase and stabilize the production yield of stacking package products, different flux, different temperature setting with reflow oven, and different flux dipping method were used. With Taguchi design of experiment, the solder balls combined situations under varied conditions were observed. The best process character of new-type integration assembly products was achieved. The experimental results and mass production data prove that different flux type and temperature setting with reflow oven won¡¦t influence the solder balls connection between two package products. Only the flux dipping method will directly affect solder balls connection between two package products. The abnormal phenomenon is the so-called cold joint in assembly plants. With innovation, silicon gel head is used as a flux adhesive way to achieve the goal of flux transferred. This method can be used in integration process of new-type stacking package products. That will certainly assure that every solder ball on each package product can be helpful for adhesion of flux. The experiments proved that the yield rate of solder balls connection of two package products is 100% after the stacking package products through reflow oven. This proves that using flux with silicon gel head on new-type stacking package products is the best way of process operation. The innovation of this new process has been granted a patent by the Patent office, ROC. Although this is a simple invention, it will bring profit to ASE Co. as well and ensure the leadership of new-type stacking package products in related industries. Keywords: Stack¡BSolder Ball¡BCold Joint¡BSilicon Pad

90nm wafer process has been released in production, but the bump pitch released in production is 180um. The major problem is the yield of solder paste printing process below 180um will be less than 80%. It means the cost will be very high. Thus it is difficult to make 150um bump pitch by using printing process in production. Substrate C4 pad will be bumped by pre-solder, and it will be jointed with wafer bump after re-flow process. The printing process is the most popular process in C4 pad pre-solder due to low cost and high throughput. But the challenge of 150um and even more of the wafer bump pitch shrinkage are the inevitable trend. So, a lot of substrate manufacturers are trying to develop the new process for C4 pro-solder pitch less than 100um. As soon as the C4 pad pre-solder pitch has been shrunk, the solder volume will be shrunk as well. It means the bump structure will be getting weak, and it may not pass the reliability tests. Thus, to evaluate the workability of bump structure is our purpose. First, the simulation software is used to compare the fatigue lives of two structures by using solder bump and copper bump substrates during thermal cycling test, and then to proceed the whole FCBGA process and reliability tests. The result of evaluation confirm the workability of FCBGA product using copper bump substrate, and it can be used with the same parameter and machine in solder bump substrate. Keyword¡GFCBGA, Substrate, Bump, Cold Joint, Delamination

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<p>In 1959, Capote’s nonfiction novel entitled, <em>In Cold Blood</em> was written using artistic methods related to fictional writing.  In consciously writing in this manner, Capote revealed a controversial shift away from a more objectivity based, journalistic truth, prevalent at the time. By using these methods to portray in particular Perry Smith, Capote has provoked doubts surrounding his commitment to “truth” within the book. </p><p>Using a narratological analysis of certain significant passages of the book, Capote’s presence and a notable relation he has to Perry is implied and brought to the forefront.  In turn, this essay looks through these passages from the perspective of the genre of autobiography.  From this viewpoint, how the reader is able to uncover Capote’s “intentions” by identifying with and presenting himself through Perry in the narrative, is discussed.</p><p>This essay concludes with the claim that due to Capote’s use of these artistic methods, the reader is provided with an autobiographical dimension to the narrative.  Consequently, the essay claims that it is because such autobiographical dimensions are described by Linda Anderson (in her book <em>Autobiography) </em>as having an “honest intention which then guarantees the truth of the writing” (3)<em>, </em>that Truman Capote’s “<strong><em>true</em></strong><em> account of a multiple murder and its consequences”, </em>[own emphasis added]<em> </em>should thus be justifiable, and in his way, honestly true.</p>