Parenting style as a predictor of students' academic achievement is gaining increased interest by parents, educators, and psychologists. Current literature suggests that a combination of three parenting dimensions (i.e., responsiveness, supervision, and autonomy granting) is relevant to characterizing one's parenting style into four types (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful), and each dimension of parenting behavior has a different effect on students' academic performance. Based on the different cultural backgrounds and the methods parents use to educate their children at home, some literature suggests that the school performance of some Asian American students could benefit from different parenting behaviors as compared to White students. Very little prior research has attended to links between parenting and achievement among high-achieving students who pursue college-level curricula during high school years, such as students enrolled in International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes. This study examined: (a) the relationships between parenting behaviors and students' achievement (i.e., semester GPA and mean score on end-of-course exams) among a combined sample of ethnically diverse IB students and then within two ethnic groups of interests (i.e., White and Asian American), (b) the differences in mean levels of students' achievement between the two aforementioned ethnic groups, and (c) differences in mean levels of parenting dimensions between two ethnic groups with regards to three parenting behaviors (i.e., responsiveness, demandingness, and autonomy granting). An archival dataset that includes data from 245 Asian American IB students and 533 White IB students was analyzed. The findings from the current study suggested that Asian American IB students earned significant higher GPAs than White IB students, while there was not a difference in performance on end-of-course exams between two groups. Second, White and Asian American IB students perceived different average levels of parenting behaviors. Specifically, White IB students reported perceiving higher levels of parental responsiveness and autonomy granting, while Asian American IB students perceiving higher level of demandingness. Additionally, responsiveness and autonomy granting both had positive relations with semester GPA within the entire sample of IB students as well as within the White IB students, while autonomy granting positively related to end-of-course exam scores within the entire IB students. All three parenting behaviors were associated with academic outcomes in a similar manner across White and Asian American IB subgroups. Specifically, responsiveness was the only significant and unique predictor of semester GPA for IB students. For end-of-course exam performance, demandingness was a negative predictor while autonomy granting was a unique positive predictor for IB students.

本研究透過瞭解理論發展的過程, 辨識學術文獻在創新開端發展的樣式與軌跡, 並以之為基礎, 分析該學術領域之研究概況與趨勢. 分析之單元為理論建立之過程以及學術文獻; 本研究之文獻資料主要來自於Journal of Product Innovation Management, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, R&D Management, Technovation, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Research Policy…等24份國際期刊, 共167篇文獻. 透過對於這些文獻的分析, 本研究辨識出三種類別, 14種研究的樣式與其相對應於理論建立過程的軌跡, 為理論建立過程提供了分類的依據, 同時也為”理論建立的理論(theory of theory-building)”提供了實徵研究的確認結果; 並以此樣式和軌跡為基礎, 分析創新開端目前研究的趨勢與概況, 提供創新開端領域目前學術研究概況的實徵數據; 本文最後將對本研究的限制提出說明, 以及對於未來可能的發展提出建議. / This study identifies trajectories and patterns of research towards theory-building in the early stage of front-end innovation. The trajectories and patterns serve as a tool to explore and analyze the trends and the landscape of current research situation in the domain of interest. The units of analysis are individual research project and the process of theory-building. The source of data come from 24 peer-review academic journals, including Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Marketing, R&D Management, Technovation, Management Science, Research Policy…and so on. In total, 167 academic articles are collected for further analysis. The result demonstrates that 14 patterns and corresponding trajectories along the theory-building process are identified. This study also discusses the possibilities of a research pattern that could be followed by these patterns and trajectories. In the end of the study, specific contributions to the knowledge of the early stage of front-end innovation are listed and future research opportunities are also suggested.

Cyclooxygenase (COX) is the rate limiting enzyme that catalyses the production of prostanoids, which are crucial to vascular homeostasis. Evidence suggests that endothelial dysfunction and inflammation play a role in vascular complications in aging and diabetes. Previous animal studies by our laboratory at RMIT University reported enhanced COX expression with aging in rat aortas, platelets and monocytes. Potentially, alteration in COX expression may result in an imbalanced prostanoid production favoring the synthesis of vasoconstrictors and hence increase the risk of cardiovascular events in the aging population. The regulation of altered COX expression in aging, however, is not clear. It has been suggested that histone hyperacetylation may be an important mechanism that regulates COX levels during the aging process as increased histone acetylation has been shown to occur with aging. Thus, we hypothesized that COX expression is modulated by histone hyperacetylati on. This was investigated by measuring COX expression in histone hyperacetylated cultured endothelial cells. In the case of diabetes, studies have reported that the development of diabetes and its complications is associated with persistent inflammatory activity, evident with increased inflammatory markers in the circulation. COX-mediated pathways may be involved in this inflammatory process in diabetes. Furthermore, the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) is accelerated in diabetes. AGEs can bind to receptors for AGEs (RAGE), which has also been suggested to play a role in inflammation in diabetes. We hypothesized that COX- and RAGE-mediated pathways contribute to increased inflammation in diabetes and potentiate the development of diabetic vascular complications. This was investigated by measuring changes in COX-mediated pathways in both rat and human diabetic models. The current thesis reports: 1) in cultured endothelial cells, histone hyperacetylation was associated with increased COX expression; 2) an overall increase in inflammation was observed in diabetes involving COX- and RAGE-mediated pathways. This was supported by increased platelet COX-1 and monocyte COX-2 levels in Zucker rats, increased monocyte COX-2 in human Type 1 diabetes and elevated plasma TXB2 and PGE2 levels in both human Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic subjects. Up-regulation of RAGE expression was further found in platelets and monocytes in both human diabetes types. When treated with NSAIDs, plasma prostanoid levels, COX and RAGE expression were reduced significantly in both platelets and monocytes in human diabetic subjects. 3) It is unclear how COX and RAGE expression was regulated, but histone modifications may be one of the mechanisms. Data from cultured cells indicated that increased COX expression was associated with increased histone acetylation levels induced by TSA. Concurrent increases in histone acetylation and COX-2 levels were also observed in human Type 1 diabetes, but similar findings were not observed in human Type 2 diabetes. In addition, we failed to find an age-dependent increase in monocyte histone H4 acetylation in human Type 2 diabetes despite an age-dependent increase in monocyte COX-2 expression. Thus, whether histone hyperacetylation modulates COX expression and in what conditions require further investigation.

La diminution des dimensions des transistors MOS, qui permet d'augmenter leur densité sur une puce, induit des effets parasites qui perturbent fortement le fonctionnement des dispositifs. Le silicium et son oxyde jusqu'alors utilisés pour le module de grille des transistors sont remis en question au profit de nouveaux matériaux : des métaux pour la grille, et des matériaux à forte permittivité diélectrique pour le diélectrique de grille.<br />Ce travail porte sur l'élaboration par gravure plasma d'une grille métallique polysilicium/TiN/HfO2 en vue d'une intégration pour les noeuds technologiques 45 nm et 32 nm. L'analyse des plasmas de gravure halogénés et des surfaces gravées par spectrométrie de masse, spectrométrie de photoélectrons X (XPS) et par des techniques de caractérisation morphologique (MEB, TEM, AFM) a permis de dégager les principaux mécanismes de gravure de TiN. Les stratégies de procédé de gravure de l'empilement de la grille et l'impact des procédés plasma sur l'intégrité des matériaux ont ensuite été discutés.<br />La gravure de TiN en plasma HBr est sélective vis à vis de la couche d'arrêt HfO2 mais elle génère de la pente dans les profils gravés, alors que le plasma de Cl2, plus réactif, conduit à une gravure latérale de la grille et induit des phénomènes de micro masquage. Cela impose un mélange HBr/Cl2 et une gravure à faible énergie de bombardement ionique pour la gravure sélective du métal.<br />La stratégie de gravure du silicium de la grille a du être repensée car l'intégration d'une couche métallique entre le silicium et le diélectrique de la grille modifie la distribution des charges statiques à<br />la surface de la couche d'arrêt, ce qui perturbe le contrôle dimensionnel des profils gravés. De plus la<br />gravure de TiN doit être anisotrope et sélective vis-à-vis de HfO2 tout en respectant l'intégrité de la partie supérieure de la grille en silicium. Ce travail montre que pour éviter la formation d'une encoche latérale à l'interface silicium/métal pendant la gravure du TiN il est nécessaire de contrôler à la fois les couches de passivation qui protègent les flancs du silicium et la composition chimique des dépôts qui recouvrent les parois du réacteur (car cette dernière influence les taux de recombinaison et donc les densités des atomes de Cl et de Br dans le plasma). Il est donc important de contrôler les étapes de conditionnement et de nettoyage des réacteurs de gravure.

<p>When someone becomes seriously ill from cancer their relatives experience a great suffering from observing the changes in their loved ones as a result of the disease. They felt that they did not receive the support and information they needed to process their difficult lives.It also emerged that the relatives didn’t think the nursing staff treated and saw the family as a whole. The purpose of the study was to describe the suffering of families, as they experienced that during the final stages of a cancer patient's life. An inductive, manifest, content analysis has been carried out in five autobiographies written by relatives of patients, who had died as a result of cancer. Biographies were reviewed by the Graneheim and Lundman's method of analysis. We used Katie Eriksson’s scientific theories of care regarding suffering as a theoretical framework. The result has collected material presented in three categories: fear, sadness, and frustration which mirrors the suffering of relatives in these books. The results showed that the relatives denied the disease's existence, experienced a fear of the disease symptoms, death, and a future without the patient. The relatives describe the grief that they felt about the prospect of being left alone, about the patient's deterioration, and of not being seen as individuals. Finally the relatives describe the frustration they feel over the panic, stress, fatigue and anger that they experience in the end of the patients life.</p> / <p>När någon blir svårt sjuk i cancer upplever dess anhöriga ett stort lidande över att se sin närmaste förändras till följd av sjukdomen. De upplevde att de inte fick det stöd och den information som de behövde för att hantera sin svåra livssituation. Det framkom också att anhöriga inte tyckte vårdpersonalen såg och vårdade familjen som en helhet. Syftet med examensarbetet var därför att beskriva anhörigas lidande så som de upplever det under den sista tiden av den cancersjuka patientens liv. En induktiv manifest innehållsanalys har genomförts på fem självbiografier skrivna av anhöriga till patienter som avlider till följd av cancer. Biografierna granskades med Graneheim och Lundmans analysmetod. Som teoretisk referensram används Erikssons vårdvetenskapliga teorier om lidande. I resultatet har insamlat material redovisats i tre kategorier; rädsla, sorg och frustration som speglar de anhörigas lidande i böckerna. Resultatet visar att de anhöriga förnekar sjukdomens existens och upplever en rädsla över sjukdomens symtom, döden och en framtid utan patienten. De anhöriga beskriver den sorg de upplever över att bli lämnade ensamma, över patientens försämring och över att inte bli sedda som individer. Slutligen beskriver anhöriga en frustration över den förtvivlan, panik, stress, trötthet och vrede som de upplever under sista tiden patienten finns i livet.</p>

<p>A study has been made in CMOS RF-switches that can be used in the front-end of a multi-band radio targeting the 802.11a,b,g and W-CDMA standards and working in the frequency range 2.4-5.5GHz. Especially, one single-transistor switch and two types of transmission gates have been analyzed, simulated and compared with respect to loss, linearity, compression point and noise. From this, five different single-transistor switches have been designed for on-chip probing measurements. Special consideration has been taken to accommodate on-chip testing, thus additional structures have been designed. The simulations and design has been performed with Chartered 0.18um RF-CMOS process. </p><p>The results from the simulations show that the single-transistor switch has better performance in loss, linearity, compression point and noise compared to the transmission gates. However, for the transmission gates the linearity can be increased beyond the linearity of the single-transistor switch if the widths of the transistors are made sufficiently large. </p><p>For the single-transistor switch, simulation results show that the transistor length shall be kept to its minimum for best performance and that the number of fingers does not influence significantly. Also, there are optimum values for the loss in on-mode, the noise and the linearity and worst-case values for the loss in off-mode when the transistor width is varied. Consequently, the single- transistor switch can be tuned by its transistor width to accommodate desired performances.</p>

<p>In this thesis, we analyze the performance of a loop-back built-in-self-test for a RF transceiver front-end. The tests aim at spot defects in a transceiver front-end and they make use of RF specifications such as NF (Noise Figure), G (power gain) and IIP3 (third order Intercept point). To enhance fault detectability, RF signal path sensitization is introduced. We use a functional RF transceiver model that is implemented in MatLab™ to verify this analysis.</p>

<p>In this master degree work, a digital attenuator and a low noise amplifier (LNA) have been designed and integrated with the RF front-end receiver for IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN standard. Firstly, the 4-bit digitally controlled attenuator has been designed with theattenuation range of 50 to 80 dB and reflection coefficient less than -25 dB. Next, the single stage wide band low noise amplifier with voltage gain larger than 14 dB and noise figure below 4 dB has been designed to operate at frequency 2.4 GHz. Finally, the integration with a down-conversion mixer has been done and evaluated its performance.</p><p>The attenuator and low noise amplifier desired in this thesis have been implemented using standard CMOS 0.35µm technology and validated by the simulation tools Cadence Spectre-RF.</p>

<p>This thesis contributes to the knowledge of how computer-mediated communication and information sharing works in large groups and networks. In more detail, the research question put forward is: in large sharing networks, what concerns do end-users have regarding to whom to provide material? A theoretical framework of gift-giving was applied to identify, label and classify qualitative end-user concerns with provision. The data collection was performed through online ethnographical research methods in two large sharing networks, one music-oriented and one photo-oriented. The methods included forum message elicitation, online interviews, application use and observation. The result of the data collection was a total of 1360 relevant forum messages. A part from this there are also 27 informal interview logs, field notes and samples of user profiles and sharing policies. The qualitative analysis led up to a model of relationships based on the observation that many users experienced conflicts of interest between various groups of receivers and that these conflicts, or social dilemmas, evoked concerns regarding public and non-public provision of material. The groups of potential recipients were often at different relationship levels. The levels ranged from the individual (ego), to the small group of close peers (micro), to a larger network of acquaintances (meso) to the anonymous larger network (macro). It is argued that an important focal point for analysis of cooperation and conflict is situated in the relations between these levels. Deepened studies and analysis also revealed needs to address dynamic recipient groupings, the need to control the level of publicness of both digital material and its metadata (tags, contacts, comments and links to other networks) and that users often refrained from providing material unless they felt able to control its direction. A central conclusion is that public and non-public gifting need to co-emerge in large sharing networks and that non-public gifting might be an important factor for the support of continued provision of goods in sustainable networks and communities.</p>

<p>With increasing demands in terms of timing, area and power, today’s ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) designers are faced with new problems as technology emerges. Ericsson has started to work in 65 nm and realized that the methods used in previous, larger technologies, does not offer good enough correlation between synthesis and the results after physical placement. This leads to several expensive and time consuming iterations back and forth between Ericsson and the ASIC vendor.</p><p>In order to narrow the gap between Ericsson and the ASIC vendor, and hence increase correlation, physical planning has been identified as a possible solution. Cadence First Encounter, part of the Cadence Encounter digital IC design platform, is an advanced tool for silicon virtual prototyping. The tool basically brings back-end placement knowledge to front-end ASIC designers.</p><p>This master’s thesis main goal is to evaluate Cadence First Encounter and investigate how it could be integrated with Ericsson’s design flow. The tool has been tested on previous designs with known issues and the results are positive. By using the prototype work flow in First Encounter that is described in this report, it is possible to identify and correct issues with the netlists in time, which will help shortening the lead time in projects and hence also the time to market.</p>