The attenuated total reflection (ATR) due to excitation of surface plasmon is usually applied to study the dielectric coefficient. In this study the surface plasmon has been excited on the interface between the liquid crystal and silver in Krestchmann configuration. We can obtain the effective reflection index and the tilt-angle of liquid crystal anchored on the interface with the excitation condition of surface plasmon. We also discuss the variation of the tilt-angle of liquid crystal with the various applied bias.

Concrete pavements are facing rapid deterioration due to the increasing high traffic volumes. Maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction (MRR) have become major activities for all the state highway agencies. Due to shortage of available funding and continuous aging of pavements, many state highway agencies are now seeking cost-effective MRR strategies. This has led a need to develop a systematic and comprehensive decision process for selecting the optimum MRR strategy that considers pavement, traffic and construction issues. This research is an effort to help the state highway agencies select the maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction strategy for concrete pavements. The research identifies feasibility, suitability and acceptability criteria that every MRR strategy should meet. The rehabilitation strategies satisfying these criteria are then weighed in decision process to determine the optimum rehabilitation strategy. Research also focuses on developing recommendations for statewide methods for rehabilitating jointed concrete pavements so as to minimize reflective cracking. Data was collected from relevant project case studies to assess and improve the framework for decision process. Further research will be required to enhance the selection process.

This study evaluated the cognitive process of students participating in a 20-hour service-learning experience while enrolled in a collegiate Social Problems course. This study examined student attitudes about social problems and their ability to affect change and examined relationships between demographic variables, student attitudes, and their stages of cognitive process. The population was all students who were enrolled in a Social Problems course during the Fall 2005 semester. Of the 77 students enrolled in the course, 48 completed both the pre-test and post-test questionnaire and 64 completed the service-learning journals and papers. The researcher used a mixed method research design. The quantitative study used a pre-test and post-test questionnaire to evaluate changes in attitude towards service learning. The qualitative study evaluated journal entries and papers using the Constant Comparative Method of Qualitative Analysis to assess stages of cognitive development. The major findings of the study were: 1) Students progressed through six stages of cognitive development - Shock, Guilt, Normalization, Cultural Sensitivity, Engagement, and Empowerment, however no student experienced all stages; 2) Three new stages were discovered - Guilt, Cultural Sensitivity, and Empowerment; 3) All students who had not volunteered before experienced Shock; 4) Shock occurred for some students who had previously volunteered; 5) Students experiencing Guilt were primarily White and from families with parental incomes greater than $75,000 a year; 7) A majority of students experienced Empowerment; 8) Most students volunteering more than 10 hours a month experienced Empowerment; 9) All People of Color experienced Empowerment; 10) Results from pre-test and post-test questionnaires did not indicate a significant change in attitudes towards service-learning as a result of participating in the service-learning experience. Educators should: 1) Be prepared to assist students as they experience multiple stages of the cognitive process during their service-learning experiences; 2) Give instruction in reflective journaling, provide students with guided journal questions, and monitor stages of the cognitive process; 3) Incorporate service-learning into curriculum to enhance cognitive learning and empower students; 4) Replicate with a more diverse population and larger sample size.

Rubbing alignment has been used popularly in display industry. However, the alignment mechanisms of rubbed polymer are still not well understood. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between anisotropy of rubbed polyimide thin film and liquid crystal alignment. In this study, we discuss the effects of surface energy and RAS on the surface roughness and pretilt angle of liquid crystal molecules. RAS is a non-contact optical probing technique developed originally for real-time, in situ monitoring of semiconductor growth . In this technique the normalized difference in reflectivity along two orthogonal directions is measured. Recently, the prospect of using RAS for process control in the fabrication of liquid crystal devices is investigated. On the other hand, we have known that the magnitude of surface energy is related to the strength of molecular bond. We can obtain the variation of surface properties by measuring the difference of surface energy. We found that the RA signal, pretilt angle and surface roughness are increasing with an increase in rubbing strength, but surface energy was decreased..

Nowadays, using the LED as backlight module's light source becomes generalization gradually, and the application of LED light source develops from the liquid crystal display to the liquid crystal TV. However, thermal dissipative problem of LED component is still an important issue to study presently, since it can affect the service lives of LED and LCD seriously. In order to increase the luminous energy of the LED component, one need to increase the supply of electric power and it will cause the increment of thermal dissipative problem of the LED component also. Therefore, by considering the LED components as the light source of the backlight module , the purpose of this study is to reduce number of the required LED components in order to decrease the thermal dissipative problem of LEDs, and maintain the luminous and uniformity of the backlight module simultaneously. A new packaging for LED, named SMD type metallic reflection cup LED component, was proposed in this study. The new LED package not only has a better thermal dissipative property, but also can control its radiation property by changing the angle of its reflection cup. So, the proposed LED package can be applied for different purposes. By applying the proposed LED components as the light source of a backlight module, under the condition of same illumination, it can be shown that the required number of LED components can be decreased tremendously and so the thermal dissipative problem can be decreased too. Also, the numerical simulated results showed that by choosing the suitable angle of the reflection cup, the uniformity of the backlight module can be improved. Besides, this study proposed a modified method for assessing the uniformity of a backlight module. The simulated results showed that the proposed method can assess the uniformity of a backlight module more suitable than the traditional nine points measurement method can do.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on Dec. 1, 2009). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics, Department of Physics, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 177-186. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-169).

This thesis investigates the geometric and topological constraints placed on the quotient space of a Fuchsian or Kleinian group by requiring that the group admits a fundamental domain which is simultaneously a Ford domain and a Dirichlet domain. In the case of Fuchsian groups, a direct correspondence with reflection groups is proved, and this result is used to first find explicitly the 23 non-cocompact arithmetic maximal hyperbolic reflection groups in the group of isometries of the hyperbolic plane, and subsequently to test whether these groups are all congruence. In the case of Kleinian groups, similar results are shown, and some examples of reflection groups are considered. / text

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