In this thesis, we propose a novel vertical MOSFET device with middle partial insulator (MPI) or VMPI for capacitorless one transistor dynamic random access memory (1T-DRAM) application. In TCAD simulations, we compare the device performances of the planar MPI, conventional silicon-on-insulator SOI, and our proposed VMPI. Based on numerical simulation, we find out that the VMPI device has a large kink phenomenon for improving the programming window. As far as the data retention time is concerned, the hole carriers leaking into the source region are reduced due to the presence of a large pseudo neutral region and an effective blocking oxide layer. The retention time can thus be improved about 5 times when compared with conventional SOI counterpart. Furthermore, it should be noted that the gate-all-around (GAA) VMPI device structure not only increases the body pseudo-neutral region, but also enhances the 1T-DRAM performances, suggesting that the proposed VMPI can become a candidate for 1T-DRAM application.

Recently, with advances in CMOS process, the RF receiver which is integrated into the SOC chip can effectively reduce production costs. When designing the wireless receiver, one of the most important technologies is to design channel-selection filter. Typically, the design of the channel-selection filter in multi-standard high-frequency will take up a large chip area and higher power consumption. Therefore, in order to reduce the area and power consumption, this thesis designed a low-power OTA and low-pass filter. This thesis presents a multi-mode wireless communication application in the receiver channel selection filter. This filter is designed to use the fifth-order Butterworth low pass filter, the filter range can be used in Bluetooth, cdma2000, wideband CDMA, and IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n wireless LAN. Using floating transistor architecture in the input stage of OTA can effectively increase the THD performance. Using MOS transistors operating in triode region and combined with current multiplier can achieve the voltage-to-current conversion. Using the trans-linear loop can reach a wide tunable range, and the OTA operating in weak inversion region can significantly reduce the transconductance. Implementation is to use the TSMC 0.18£gm CMOS process. Simulation results show that the successful operation of this filter can be between 650 kHz ~ 22MHz frequency range. The filter may have compatibility in different wireless communication applications. 14.5mW to 17.5mW, respectively, is the smallest to the largest power consumption. The supply voltage is 1.2 volts.

Adopting historical perspectives, this thesis explores domestic, aesthetic, and cultural conflicts in modern Japan surrounding Masuji Ono, the protagonist in Kazuo Ishiguro¡¦s An Artist of the Floating World, as he looks back on his past. His memory narrative reveals his transformation from an iconoclastic young artist to a militarist propagandist in pre-war time, and finally to an old man who comes to terms with the loss of his prestige through none too reliable remembrances. Reading Ono¡¦s narrative in cross reference to historical texts, I argue that his transformation is in step with Japan¡¦s shift from a thriving nation to a militarist empire, and ultimately to a defeated nation subject to the Occupation after World War II and subsequent social changes. These changes are induced by democratization and disarmament engineered by the American army, which drastically undermine Japanese values, including the apotheosis of the Emperor, patriarchy, and social hierarchy. Forced to redefine themselves in the midst of the drastic social transformation, the Japanese harbor mixed feelings toward the emperor, regarding him as a guardian of the nation and a traitor. This ambivalence is profoundly felt by Ono, whose fall parallels the emperor¡¦s, since his authority as a father and a painting master is interrogated by the younger generation, most notably his daughter. In particular, his interaction with his grandson, who is brought up with American values, registers the Japanese attitudes toward the American, considering the occupier as both a welcomed authority and an alien monster. By examining three prominent authority figures in the novel¡Xfather, master, and monster¡Xthis thesis uncovers Ishiguro¡¦s agenda for negotiating an interface between history and personal memory.

In the present thesis the performance of box type floating breakwaters (FBs) with screens under regular waves is examined experimentally in a wave flume. The experiments were conducted in the Coastal and Harbor Engineering Laboratory wave flume, Civil Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara. The influence of incident wave characteristics and certain geometric characteristics, such as the width and draft of the structure, on its effciency is examined. Three different widths of the structure in combination with three different screen (draft) height, a total of nine different cases, of FBs are examined. Results related to transmission and reflection of the incident regular waves on the structure are presented. According to the results, for all structures drafts and structure widths, as h/L increase (wave period and wave height decreases) Kt values decrease. Also, Kt values obtained for chain moored floating breakwaters are larger than the Kt values of fixed cases consistently.

Computer graphics has become one of the important method to display information and has been applied in many applications such as CAD, medical image processing, computer animation, multimedia and virtual reality. These popular applications rely on the low-cost and real-time processing of 3D graphics which become available due to the breakthrough in the hardware design of 3D graphic engine. In this thesis, we implement a CORDIC-based floating-point processor that can compute a wide variety of arithmetic operations and show how it can be applied to the design of 3D engine.

A 2D fully nonlinear Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) is developed based on the potential theory, mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian (MEL) time marching scheme, and boundary element method (BEM). Nonlinear Wave deformation and wave forces on stationary and freely floating bodies are calculated using the NWT. For verification, the computed mean, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order wave forces on a single submerged cylinder are compared with those of Chaplin's experiment, Ogilvie's 2nd-order theory, and other nonlinear computation called high-order spectral method. Similar calculations for dual submerged cylinders are also conducted. The developed fully nonlinear NWT is also applied to the calculations of the nonlinear pressure and force of surface piercing barge type structures and these obtained results agree with experimental and theoretical results. Nonlinear waves generated by prescribed body motions, such as wedge type wave maker or land sliding in the coastal slope area, can also be simulated by the developed NWT. The generated waves are in agreement with published experimental and numerical results. Added mass and damping coefficients can also be calculated from the simulation in time domain. For the simulation of freely floating barge-type structure, only fully nonlinear time-stepping scheme can accurately produce nonlinear body motions with large floating body simulations. The acceleration potential method, which was developed by Tanizawa (1996), is known to be the most accurate, consistent and stable. Using acceleration potential method, in the present study, the series of motions and drift forces were calculated over a wide range of incident wave frequencies including resonance region. To guarantitatively compare the nonlinear contribution of free-surface and body-boundary conditions, the body-nonlinear-only case with linearized free-surface condition is separately simulated. All the floating body motions and forces are in agreement with experimental results. Finally, the NWT is extended to fully nonlinear wave-body-current interactions of freely floating bodies, which has not been published in the open literature until now.

This thesis is mainly proposed and discussed the characteristics of polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor putting forward and probing into four kinds of novel buried-oxide structures. Because of the shortcoming of the traditional polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor, like leakage current (On/Off state current), subthreshold swing, floating body effect (kink effect), self-heating effect, and short channel effect etc.. Thus, we propose and fabricate four kinds of novel structural polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors that are involved in the following, indicating to improve the critical issues of polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor mentioned above. 1. We propose and fabricate the multiple/dual trenched-body polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor. This proposed structure is demonstrated to obviously suppress the off-state leakage up to 70% reduction, comparing with the conventional device. Also, we survey the reliability of this proposed device included temperature and DC hot-carrier stress effects. We found that the trenched-body TFTs perform more rapid degradation than the conventional TFT does after the temperature and stress durations, but their electrical characteristics are still superior to the conventional counterparts. Importantly, we demonstrate that this proposed device have a dramatic potential to be a novel capacitorless 1T-DRAM, because of its large floating-body-charge storages. As the experiment, the large threshold voltage shift is examined apparently after a certain write and erase operations, leading to a manifest programming window. 2. We propose and fabricate the block-oxide polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor. This proposed structure can not only improve the leakage issue of conventional device seriously, but also avoid fluctuating threshold voltage attributed from the ultra-thin film effect. 3. We propose and fabricate the floating-body contact polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor. This structure is modified by the conventional contact window in order to effectively improve the kink effect, utilizing the bottom gate polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor. 4. Finally, we propose and simulate the non-continuous buried layer polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor. This structure built upon the field oxidation layer can effectively improve the self-heating effect and kink effect. Furthermore, this structure is simple to fabricate, practical, and completely compatible on CMOS technology.

"Enhanced index fund" is an investment strategy, combining active and passive management elements, for index tracking and return enhancing through disciplined market timing, stock selection and leverage activities. Though enhanced index funds have been well developed globally, there is only one enhanced index fund in Taiwan - "Polaris/P-Shares Taiwan Dividend+ ETF". Taiwan's stock market falls between weak form and semi-strong form efficiency. With the growth of Taiwan's mutual fund industry size, the enhanced index funds have very good chance to become the main investment instruments of institutional investors, index investors, and pensions. This study attempts to build enhanced index funds, then analyzes the performance and checks the feasibility of launching such products in Taiwan. In this study, we select "TSEC Taiwan 50 index (TW50)" as the benchmark index. The innovative "Multi-section Adjustment Model" divides the original weights of constituent stocks into two sections. Each section is adjusted through parameters. The "multi-factor model section" is responsible for the delivery of enhanced return, while the "cash dividend yield section" is used to provide excess cash dividend yield. The investment target is set for less than 1.5 percent tracking error, at least 1 percent tracking difference, and higher cash dividend yield than the benchmark. Building methodology can be divided into "fixed parameter model" and "floating parameters model" according to its update frequency. Empirical studies show that: (1) The enhanced index fund built from the "fixed parameter model" not only exhibits risk slightly lower than the benchmark, but also enjoys higher return. (2) In the short-term, the performance of the enhanced index fund built from "floating parameters model" is difficult to predict; in the long-term, however, the risk is lower and the return is higher than TW50. The cumulative return from the "fixed parameter model" is higher than the "floating parameters model" by about 2 percent. (3) The effectiveness of the parameters used to control the optimal weight distribution is decreasing over time, so it is necessary to update parameters regularly. (4) Raising "enhancement multiplier" will cause higher tracking error, but also bring higher tracking difference. This result proves that "multi-factor model section" works nicely and has its contribution. (5) As the "section allotment" and/or "fixed rate" getting lower, there will be more and more weights distributed to the cash dividend yield level, resulting in higher cash dividend yield. It means the "cash dividend yield section" has its merit as well. (6) Regular parameter updates to the "floating parameters model" helps to reduce the tracking error and, at the same time, maintain positive tracking difference. Considering the perpetual life of real world funds, "floating parameters model" should be a better building methodology. "Multi-Section Adjustment Model" has following advantages: (1) Its concept is intuitive and easy to use. (2) Sections can be customized based on investment objectives. (3) It is easy to analyze the impacts and trade-off among the parameters.

This paper is to investigate the wave-induced dynamic properties of the floating platform for cage aquaculture. Considering the calculation efficiency and its applicability, this problem is simplified by: (1) assuming the flow field is inviscid, incompressible and irrotational; (2) the form drag and inertia drag on the fish net is calculated by the modified Morison equation (or Morison type equation of relative motion), including the material and geometric properties; (3) the moorings is treated as a symmetric linear spring system and the influence of hydrodynamic forces on the mooring lines is neglected; and (4) the net-volume is assumed as un-deformable to avoid the inversely prolonging computing time because the mass of fish net with is too light comparing with the mass of floating platform and cause the marching time step tremendously small to reach the steady-state condition which may lead to larger numerical errors (e.g. truncation errors) in computation. The BIEM with linear element scheme is applied to establish a 2D fully nonlinear numerical wave tank (NWT). The nonlinear free surface condition is treated by combining the Mixed Eulerian and Lagrangian method (MEL), the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method (RK4) and the cubic spline scheme. The second-order Stokes wave theory is adopted to give the velocity on the input boundary. Numerical damping zones are deployed at both ends of the NWT to dissipate or absorb the transmitted and reflected wave energy. The velocity and acceleration fields should be solved simultaneously in order to obtain the wave-induced dynamic property of the floating platform. Thus, both the acceleration potential method and modal decomposition method are adopted to solve the wave forces on the floating body, while the wave forces on the fish net are calculated by the modified Morison equation. According to Newton¡¦s second law, the total forces on the gravity center of the floating platform form the equation of motion. Finally, the RK4 is applied to predict the displacement and velocity of the platform. Firstly, the NWT is validated by comparing the wave elevation, internal velocity and acceleration with those from the second-order Stokes wave theory. Moreover, the numerical damping zone is suitable for long time simulation with a wide range of wave depth. The simulated results on wave-body interactions of fixed or freely floating body also indicate good agreement with those of other published results. Secondly, in the case of the interaction of waves and the floating platform, the simulated results show well agreement with experimental data, except at the vicinity of resonant frequency of roll and heave motions. This discrepancy is due to the fluid viscous effect. To overcome this problem and maintain the calculation efficiency, an uncoupled damping coefficient obtained by a damping ratio (£i=0.1 ) is incorporated into the vibration system. Results reveal that responses of body motion near the resonant frequencies of each mode have significant reduction and close to the experimental data. Moreover, the results are also consistent well with experiments in different wave height, mooring angle, water depth either with or without fish net. Therefore, the suitable value of the damping ratio for the floating platform is £i=0.1. Finally, the present model is applied to investigate the dynamic properties of the floating platform under different draft, width, spacing, spring constant, mooring angle and depth of fish net. Results reveal that the resonant frequency and response of body motion, mooring force, reflection and transmission coefficients and wave energy will be changed. According to the resonant response, the platform with shallower draft, larger width, longer spacing between two pontoons, smaller spring constants, or deeper depth of fish net has more stable body motions and smaller mooring forces. Irregular wave cases are presented to illustrate the relationship with the regular wave cases. Results indicate that the dynamic responses of body motion and the reflection coefficient in irregular waves have similar trend with regular waves. However, in the irregular wave cases, the resonant frequency is moved to the higher frequency. Similarly, resonant response function is smaller but wider, which is due to the energy distribution in the wave spectrum.

<p>This study investigate water uptake in six different species of hardwood in tangential and radial section. Alder (Alnus glutinosa) and beech (Fagus sylvatika) represent semi-diffuse-porous hardwoods. Aspen (Popolus tremula) and birch (Betula pubescens) represent diffuse-porous group; oak (Quercus robur) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior) the ring-porous hardwoods. Spruce (Picea abies) was used as a reference sample.</p><p>Significantly higher water uptake was observed in the diffuse-porous and the semi-diffuse-porous group. Water uptake varied among the species, nevertheless tangential section was more permeable in general. Any impact of density or annual rings width on water uptake was observed. Correlation between ratio of earlywood and latewood and water uptake in dependence on hardwood group was found out. Ring-porous species had low rate of earlywood and low water uptake, whereas diffuse-porous and semi-diffuse-porous hardwoods had high rate of earlywood and high water uptake. Relation between water uptake and microstructure of wood was observed.</p>