Higher data rate hard disk drives(HDD) and improved read channel electronics are demanding preamplifier performance be extended well beyond 1 Gb/s. Historically, preamplifier power requirements were of low priority; however, with increased demand for battery powered devices such as laptops, MP3 players, personal video recorders, andmanyother wireless hand-held devices, power consumption has become an important design parameter.Furthermore, in order to continue to increase drive capacities, new read-write head technologies(vertical recording and TGMR heads) are demanding innovative preamplifier circuitsolutions.Today's production preamplifiers possess a wide band response of 2.5 MHz-600 MHz; however next generation preamplifiers willrequire response greater than 250 KHz-1 GHz.Low corner frequencies below 250 KHz present read recovery (sleep-to-read, write-to-read, etc) challenges which can limit drive capacity. This project targets a > 2 Gb/s TGMR (tunneling giantmagneto-resistive) read path for verticalrecording HDDs. A high performance BiCMOS process (IBM's 0.5?m 5HP process)is essential due to the large transconductances, low noise and highspeed requirements of the read path's first stage. System frequency limitations at the input are a result of the large TGMR read sensor and preamplifier input capacitance. Due to read head and preamplifier manufacturingvariations, resistive feedbackaroundthe firststage is usedto seta controlled input impedance targeted to match the interconnect transmission line. Head resistance variations lead to gain variations; however, the TGMR element becomes more sensitive with larger resistance. This, to a first order approximation, acts like an automatic gain control and reduces variations in gain due to the head.

Incorporating safety in the design of a highway is one of the foremost duties of a design engineer. Design guidelines provide standards that help engineers include safety in the design of various geometric features. However, design guidelines are not frequently revised and do not accommodate for the frequent changes in vehicle design. One such example is the change in vehicle headlamps. These changes significantly impact the illuminance provided on the road and in turn the design formula. Roadway visibility is critical for nighttime driving. In the absence of roadway lighting, vehicle headlamps illuminate the road ahead of a vehicle. Sag vertical curve design depends on the available headlight sight distance provided by the 1 degree upward diverging headlamp beam. The sag curve design formulas were developed in the early 1940s when sealed beam headlamps were predominant. However, headlamps have changed significantly and modern headlamps project less light above the horizontal axis. In this research, the difference in illuminance provided by sealed beam headlamps and modern headlamps was examined. For the theoretical analysis, three different sag curves were analyzed. On these curves, about 26 percent reduction in illuminance was observed at a distance equal to the stopping sight distance when comparing sealed beam to modern headlamps. A change in the headlamp divergence angle from 1.0 degree to 0.85 degree will provide the required illuminance on the road when using modern headlamps. A field study was performed to validate the theoretical calculations. It was observed that for modern headlamps, a divergence angle less than 1 degree and greater than 0.5 degrees will provide illuminance values comparable to sealed beam headlamps. As a part of this research, a preliminary study, examining the impact of degraded headlamp lenses on the illuminance provided on sag vertical curves was conducted. A significant reduction in illuminance reaching the roadway on sag curves was observed, due to headlamp lens degradation.

Vertical simulations of ozone were made using a TAPM (The Air Pollution Model) at the Linyuan site in Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan. Ozone was simulated at altitudes of 0, 100, 300, 500 and 1000 m from November 23 to 25 in 2005 and March 21 to 23 in 2006. The surface ozone concentrations that were predicted using TAPM were high (33.7−119 ppbv) in the daytime (10:00−16:00) and were low (10−40 ppbv) at other times, which predictions were consistent with the observations. The simulated surface ozone concentrations reveal that costal lands typically had higher ozone concentrations than those inland, because most industrial parks are located in or close to the boundaries of Kaohsiung City. Both measurements and simulations indicate that daytime ozone concentrations decreased quickly with increasing height at altitudes below 300 m; while nighttime ozone concentrations were lower at low altitudes (50 to 300 m) than at higher altitudes, partly because of dry deposition and titration of surface ozone by the near-surface nitrogen oxides (NOx) and partly because of the existence of the residual layer above the stable nocturnal boundary layer. The simulations show a good correlation between the maximum daytime surface ozone concentration and average nighttime ozone concentration above the nocturnal boundary layer.

This study investigated the electro-optic characteristics of VAN ¡]vertical-alignment nematic¡^liquid crystal device in passive mode, and tried to present the advantage of high contrast ratio which belongs to VA mode. The experiment consisted of three parts: 1. Change different cell thickness¡]d = 12£gm¡B6£gm¡B4.9£gm¡^. 2. Chang LC with the different value of dielectric¡]£G£`= -3.7¡B-6.1¡^. 3. Chang LC with different refraction anisotropy¡]£Gn = 0.15¡B0.078¡^. We drive those samples with different number of duty in passive mode, and to measure the electro-optic characteristics, including VT curve, response time, and contrast ratio. We knew that STN¡]Super Twist Nematic LCD¡^has the drawbacks of lower contrast ratio, higher operational voltage and slower response time within higher duty in passive mode. And the same problem comes with VAN in passive-drive mode, although it is said VAN has the high performance of contrast ratio. The contrast ratio is worse then STN when driving in higher duty. As a result of VAN is kind of ECB mode, its transparency has a big matter with light retardation. We find that in the same condition of driving duty, the value of cell gap or the £Gn become larger, the value of the sharpness and the contrast ratio become larger.

The small-scale vertical migration patterns and spatiotemporal variations of copepods in the Tapong Bay, southwestern Taiwan, from 2003 to 2005 were studied. The differences in species composition and abundance of copepods before and after the removal of oyster culture racks in relation to tides, hydrography and other environmental factors were also compared and herein discussed. Tapong Bay has distinct dry (October to April) and wet (June to August) seasons and exhibits apparent inter-annual variation, cold, saline and low Chl a concentration in dry season, and vice versa in wet season. Most copepod species displayed normal diel vertical migration, descending to the deeper water during daytime and ascending to near surface water at night. Copepods were always more abundant at night than during daytime. Higher abundance but smaller species number of copepods were found during ebb than flood tides. In all, 123 copepod species belonging to 18 families and 31 genera were identified. Oithona oculata, Parvocalanus crassirostris, Acartia sinjiensis, Acartia sp., Bestiolina amoyensis and copepod nauplius were predominant and together they composed 74% of the total number of copepods. These dominant species showed apparent seasonal changes, with higher abundance in autumn and winter. Copepod assemblage also showed apparent difference between stations. Warm-saline-coastal species dominated in the outer region, while small-size taxa and common species of estuaries and aquaculture ponds dominated in the inner bay. Results of indicator species analysis could possibly recognize the area affected by tides and water masses, and identified Acrocalanus gracilis to be the indicator species of flood tide and outer region of the bay, and Acartia sinjiensis the indicator species of ebb tide and inner bay. Our results showed that after the removal of oyster culture racks the species number and abundance of copepods were higher but the seasonal and spatial differences in abundance became smaller. Furthermore, the increase in abundance of zooplankton and copepods in the Bay after the removal of oyster culture racks might be due to the absence of oyster population which exerts great filter¡Vfeeding impact on phytoplankton, and decrease of predation pressure from moon-jelly that usually aggregated in the inner Bay and settled down their polyps on the oyster racks but disappeared after the removal.

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Multibeam system is a rather new technique for generating huge digital terrain model quickly. If the primitive data does not perform quality control and the calibration process, inconsistency among the axes of transducer, motion sensor and gyrocompass may results in unreasonable underwater topography. The problem in the hydrographic surveying in the practice is not easy to seek for the suitable seabed or underwater feature for patch test at present. This research attempts to use fewer horizontal cross section of an underwater feature to compute roll, pitch and yaw deviation angle that differs from traditional vertical profile computing approach for patch test. And using different survey line combination and different underwater topography condition to achieve independent solution of angle deviation . We also design the new processing order for patch test. It hopes to utilize this concept to carry out patch test by the common underwater feature or recycling man-made object for resolving this problem in the future. The experimental results show that new calibration can get the same achievement as the traditional calibration by the CARIS HIPS software, and the calibration results applied in the cross check lines can pass through IHO special standard. It shows that the calibration results not only suit for calibration survey lines, but also good for rest of the area. It proves the proposed new patch test is feasible.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 210 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-101).

Prefabricated vertical drains represent a soil improvement technique that achieves liquefaction mitigation by decreasing the drainage path length and hence expediting the dissipation of excess pore pressures. When evaluating the required spacing between vertical drains to achieve the desired reduction in pore pressure response, simplified design charts or more sophisticated finite element analyses are used to predict the pore pressure response. These charts and programs have not been evaluated in terms of their accuracy because there exists little data with which to compare the numerical predictions. More recently, the effectiveness of prefabricated vertical drains for liquefaction mitigation has been evaluated via small – scale centrifuge testing performed on untreated soil deposits and on soil deposits treated with vertical drains. In particular, the performance of the soil deposits subjected to sinusoidal motions and actual earthquake recordings was tested. The main goal of this research is to compare the experimental observations of pore pressure response from the centrifuge experiments with the numerical predictions. The comparison focuses on the average excess pore pressure ratio (r_(u,avg)) that was developed in the location of a vertical pore pressure array in both the untreated and drain – treated sides of the models. In parallel, a parametric study is performed for the numerical predictions in order to study the effect of each input parameter that influences the pore pressure prediction, namely the effect of soil properties, ground motion characteristics and drain parameters. The numerical predictions are found to provide reliable predictions of the pore pressure response despite the simplicity of the constitutive model employed. The numerical predictions of r_(u,avg) time – histories are generally in good agreement with the recorded values in the centrifuge experiments. In most of the cases, the numerical model managed to predict the same maximum average excess pore pressure ratio, which is the parameter that is used in drain design. To incorporate any uncertainty on the soil properties or on the characteristics of shaking, the use of a smaller pore pressure threshold for drain design is recommended. / text

published_or_final_version / Civil and Structural Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy