In this thesis, according to the development of the vertical MOSFETs, we propose several MOSFETs that possess vertical channels, double gates, and buried oxide to solve the defects of the applications in switch devices, CMOS technique, and power devices. The vertical sidewall MOSFETs has many advantages, such as the packing density improvement, multiple channels, and independence on the critical lithography. Based on these characteristics, three kinds MOSFETs are now proposed. The first one is the vertical SOI MOSFET with smart source/ body contact (SSBVMOS). It is proposed to solve the floating body effect and self-heating effect. SSBVMOS provides a body-tie that does not occupy the excessive wafer area. It uses the smart source/body-tie to eliminate the unnecessary carriers and to provide an effective heat pass way. In addition, SSBVMOS is discussed with respect to the channel length and the buried oxide thickness adjustments, and also compared with the conventional vertical sidewall MOSFETs. The second one is the vertical MOSFET with upper and internal l-shape buried oxide (ULVMOS). ULVMOS uses the buried oxide to decrease the junction leakage. The ULVMOS also operates under the fully depleted regime to provide good characteristics. The last one is the novel embedded vertical sidewall MOSFETs (EGVMOS). EGVMOS maintains the advantages of the vertical structures and reduces the fabrication difficulty. It is also expected to decrease the overlap capacitance issue which affects the AC performance in the vertical sidewall MOSFET. As semiconductor channel length scaled down, the proposed devices is proved to provide effective applications for achieving good subthreshold swing, high on-off current ratio, and low DIBL through ISE-TCAD software simulation and real fabrication.

The structure of protein is essentially important for life activities. Proteins can perform their functions only by specific structures. In this thesis, the kink and multi-kink model for protein description are reviewed. It is shown that most of the loop parts in Protein Databank (PDB) can be described by very limited number of kinks within the experimental precision. Furthermore, by applying the model into two well studied real proteins (myoglobin and villin headpiece HP35), it is shown that the multi-kink model gives correct folding pathway and thermal dynamical properties compared with the experimental results for both proteins. In particular, the kink model is computationally inexpensive compared with other existing models. In the last chapter, a new visualization method for the heavy atoms in the side-chain is presented.

Recently the semiconductor industry tends to develop a smaller volume device and system with lower power consumption, lower leakage current, and high speed performance. SOI technology having many unique characteristics is one of the most hopeful methods in the direction. As semiconductor memory is concerned, The 1T-DRAM cell realized by the concept of floating body effect in a PD-SOI nMOSFET, that can allow DRAM cell to be scaled down in depth with less area occupied .In this paper, we will propose a new structure of 1T-DRAM cell, which has the buried oxide and block oxide around its body. It can suppress the junction capacitor between the S/D and the body of the cell. In addition it can also improve the programming window of the 1T-DRAM cell more than 80% by utilizing its own structural characteristic. We fabricated our new device in National Nano Device Laboratories. The device was carried out by depositing oxide and poly film on bulk Si wafer, just like TFT process. But doing by this way it has some issues about the polycrystalline channel and the S/D. Although it has some issues, but we made it successful using bulk Si wafer rather than expensive SOI wafer. It indeed reduces the cost of process.

The term “kink” refers to a community of people and a practice of sexual activities that engage in power exchanges with their partner(s), pain, and/or restraint in a myriad of different contexts, that may or may not occur in an overt sexual context (Meyer & Chen, 2019). “Kink” can be used interchangeably with the acronym BDSM, which stands for bondage, dominance/discipline, sadism/submission, masochism. The overall purpose of this study was to learn more about those who are part of the kink community. This research is important because the current literature on those who engage in kink is relatively small and more information is needed on this population. Findings from this study may help therapists working with kink-oriented clients in the form of more understanding and in the provision of better care. Findings from this study may also contribute to the reduction of stigma associated with this population. I sought to answer the following questions: (1) Do kink members manifest symptoms of psychopathology more than non-kink individuals? And (2) Can interest in kink activities be predicted from variables related to psychopathology? Undergraduate students (n = 159; 110 females, 41 males, 2 trans, 2 “other”, 4 whom did not report their gender) completed questionnaires assessing: interest in kink, maladjustment (symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization), sadism, aggressiveness, antisocial behaviors, narcissism, histrionic behaviors, autonomous thinking, and empathy. Results indicated the following: Overall, there were no differences between members of the kink community versus non-kink members on study variables. Additional regression analyses revealed that those interested and open to kink activities tend to be autonomous (or independent) thinkers, less self-centered (i.e., narcissistic), and more concerned with ethics (e.g., obtaining consent for sex) than those not interested in kink activities. However, results also indicated that those interested in kink tend to enjoy attention (i.e., engage in histrionic behaviors). All considered, the data suggest that more individuals are open to, and have engaged in, kink-related sexual activities compared to those who openly self-identify as members of the kink community. Moreover, many of those who are open to and/or have engaged in kink are not necessarily any more pathological with respect to their psychological adjustment compared to non-kink people. With the exception of liking attention, these results suggest that kink members are more independently minded (i.e., concern themselves less for how others think or view them), less self-centered in some aspects, and recognize the importance of ethics, presumably as it relates to obtaining consent for sexual activities with others. Discussions of these results are provided.

“Textual Glory Holes” examines a particular online fan community called a kink meme, in which fans exchange sexually-charged fanfiction as gifts. In this essay, I argue that, not only does the genre of fanfiction help to create and sustain the concept of kink, but that kink as a category is an interpellation of, experimentation with, and performance of the eroticism of genre in fanfiction. Furthermore, the kink meme community constitutes itself by performing this fannish erotics for each other in fiction and in sexualized feedback, resulting in a community that embraces the pleasures of this performance but sometimes distances itself from the power and political implications of the performance. Moments when fans do not distance themselves from this erotics of genre—one of unearthing and understanding diverse and diffuse pleasures—hold the potential to become what Audre Lorde calls “creative energy empowered,” a shared pleasure that can “lessen the threat of difference.” / text

Master of Science / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / William Kuhn / Studies of Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) CMOS device operation in cryogenic environments are presented. The main focus was to observe the characteristic changes in high, medium and low threshold SOS NFETs as well as SOS silicide blocked (SN) resistors when the operational temperature is in the devices’ freeze-out range below 77 Kelvin. The measurements taken will be useful to any integrated circuit (IC) designer creating devices based on an SOS process intended to operate in cryogenic environments such as superconducting electronics and planetary probes. First, a 1N4001 rectifier and a 2N7000 NFET were tested to see how freeze-out effects standard diode and MOS devices. These devices were tested to see if the measurement setup could induce carrier freeze-out. Next, SOS devices were studied. Data was collected at room temperature and as low as 5 Kelvin to observe resistance changes in an SN resistor and kink effect, threshold voltage shifts and current level changes in transistors. A 2μm high threshold NFET was tested at room temperature, 50 Kelvin, 30 Kelvin and 5 Kelvin to observe effects on I-V curves at different temperatures with-in the freeze-out range. A 2μm medium threshold NFET was tested down to 56 Kelvin to see if the behavior is similar to the high threshold FET. A 2μm intrinsic, or low threshold, NFET was also tested with the assumption it would be the most susceptible to carrier freeze-out. All of the devices were found to behave well with only mild effects noted.

This paper explores how people of color, particularly black people in the Atlanta area, navigate inside and outside of their sexual communities – particularly, BDSM, polyamory and swinging communities. I investigated how participants’ (N=11) identity construction and sexual actions/behaviors contributed to the benefits and/or consequences that fostered the navigation of non-sexual and sexual communities using queer theory and intersectionality theory with a womanist approach. Particularly, I found that my participants migrated towards communities based on privilege, comfort, and acts of resistance. In addition, I found that while they all identified as “perverts of color,” they did not identify as “promiscuous.” Overall, this study highlights the potential for people to resist certain oppressions, all while maintaining a sex-positive politic inside and outside of their alternative sexual communities. It also emphasizes the need to broaden our scopes on sexual liberation movements that marginalize those with various intersections of identities.

In this thesis, a bottom gate TFT with smart body tie device is realized, For a PDSOI devices, which usually uses large layout areas of body ties, and it has self-heating effect resulting from the buried oxide between the silicon film and substrate, which has a lower thermal conductivity. In order to suppress the short channel effect and reduce leakage current, we dug out in advance the PN junction to formed the ultra thin film body, besides, in order to reduce Miller's capacitance effect we formed enough thickness of spacer at both sides of the bottom gate and let the source and the drain region do not too closer nearly. According to the simulation results of ISE TCAD, the TFT with smart body tie device can alleviate self-heating effect and can achieve kink-free at output characteristic curve due to hot carriers by impact ionization and enhance the breakdown voltage of the device. Although the drive current of the TFT device lower than conventional TFT due to the parasitic resistance in the body region, the output characteristic curve is smooth in the saturation zone; the device suppress the short channel effect and improve the performance of the device due to most areas of PN junction are dug out.

Composite materials are widely used in demanding applications in aerospace and other industries. In order to understand the complex behaviour of the composite materials and their components, standardised test methods are used. One example is the double cantilever beam (DCB) test in which the test specimen is loaded in an opening, i.e., tensile mode. Failures in composite materials loaded compression are different from those in tension, for example, kink band or buckling-like failures can occur. In this project, several DCBs are designed and a new fixture which allows for compression testing of a DCB is developed for an existing Instron testing machine. The fixture overcomes a known problem of tensile peak causing the failure of the adhesive at the inner surfaces of the DBC by applying additional compressive loads along the outer surfaces of the DBC. The compressive forces can induce the desired kink band formation so that researchers can better study the failure mode. The conceptual development of the new DCBs and the new fixture are presented. Several prototypes of the specimens and the fixture are modelled using the three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design software Creo Parametric 2.0.  One of the fixtures is selected to further study. The different DCB specimens are studied in order to obtain information about the kink band using 3D finite element analysis with the software programme Abaqus CAE. The selected fixture is analysed to determine if there are any areas of concern. Finally, the behaviour of the compression stress along the DCB using two pairs of forces is studied. Unfortunately, it is determined that the tensile peak experienced by the adhesive cannot be eliminated by the application of two pairs of compressive loads, one at the free end and the other in the vicinity of the tensile peak. Several suggestions are made for future work which might serve to reduce the tensile peak; e.g., the movable force couple is applied as a surface load instead of a point load. For this, the fixture will have to be modified with a new geometry, although the DCB could be the same. This will allow further work to focus on the combined behaviour of the tensile peak and the fixture.

Kink has a long history of being condemned in Western society. Even though kink is prevalent in popular culture (and in many people’s bedrooms) it continues to be considered abnormal and associated with deviance. Through nine in-depth qualitative interviews, this thesis explores the experiences of kinksters with kink, their engagement with the kink community, and their negotiations of stigma in everyday life. These experiences are analyzed using Foucault’s theories on discourse and technologies of the self and Goffman’s conceptualization of stigma. The thesis found that while the social condemnation of kink has resulted in members of the kink community struggling to manage their identity as kinksters, they also find joy and a sense of belonging within the kink community. Moreover, through the kink community, kinksters learn to conceptualize and practice consent in a new way; one that is rooted in being an ethical subject. The thesis concludes with a call to challenge the normative tropes and stigmatic assumptions of deviance that continue to marginalize and oppress kinksters.