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Due to oxide formation at the die backside, excessive non‐wetting and voiding can occur especially for the larger die (100K sq. mil) by gold eutectic die attach. Such voiding can cause die lift‐off and cracking. Ag/glass seems to be a promising candidate. However, it has some shortcomings. First, solder seal hermeticity reject may occur due to nickel diffusing through gold metallisation and being oxidised on the surface of the multilayer package. Secondly, for those devices requiring backside contact, gold metallisation on the die backside becomes the barrier for the reaction between the silicon and the glass. The adhesion may be degraded. The factors which may overcome these shortcomings will be discussed.

Analyzing national statistical 2007 data from the U.S. Department of Education, this chapter examines the current status and trends concerning Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) women in higher education by looking at their presence at key levels of the higher education pipeline. It considers their representation as doctoral degree holders, assistant professors, tenured professors, and college/university presidents. The findings demonstrate that AAPI women are underrepresented as faculty in contrast to the large and growing numbers of AAPI women students who make up the talent pool to the professoriate. Moreover, despite the in-roads AAPI women have made as faculty members, race and gender disparities still persist and grow as the rank increases. AAPI female faculty representation stalls very early on in the pipeline, namely, in being hired and at tenure, and continues to shrink as the pipeline advances. AAPI male and white female faculty may also face barriers to the top, but Asian American women faculty may experience them sooner. Consequently, the numbers of AAPI women full professors are small and as campus presidents they are miniscule. However, for white men, their representation increases as the pipeline advances.

Successful bridge management system (BMS) development requires a reliable bridge deterioration model, which is the most crucial component in a BMS. Historical condition ratings obtained from biennial bridge inspections are a major source for predicting future bridge deterioration in BMSs. However, historical condition ratings are very limited in most bridge agencies, thus posing a major barrier for predicting reliable future bridge performance. The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary study as part of a long‐term research on the development of a reliable bridge deterioration model using advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques.

This proposed study aims to develop a reliable deterioration model. The development work consists of two major Stages: stage 1 – generating unavailable bridge element condition rating records using the Backward Prediction Model (BPM). This helps to provide sufficient historical deterioration patterns for each element; and stage 2 – predicting long‐term condition ratings based on the outcome of Stage 1 using time delay neural networks (TDNNs).

Long‐term prediction using proposed method can also be expressed in the same form of inspection records – element quantities of each bridge element can be predicted. The proposed AI‐based deterioration model does not ignore critical failure risks in small number of bridge elements in low condition states (CSs). This implies that the risk in long‐term predictions can be reduced.

The proposed methodology aims to utilise limited bridge inspection records over a short period to predict large datasets spanning over a much longer time period for a reliable, accurate and efficient long‐term bridge deterioration model. Typical uncertainty, due to the limitation of overall condition rating (OCR) method, can be minimised in long‐term predictions using limited inspection records.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the job satisfaction level of quantity surveyors (QSs); identify the personal characteristics that influence their job satisfaction; and provide recommendations to employers on how to enhance job satisfaction of QSs with different personal characteristics.

Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire to QSs in Singapore.

QSs feel that they have significantly high passion for the job, are significantly satisfied with task variety and are treated fairly. However, they are significantly dissatisfied with their workload, hours worked, and lack of work-life balance. QSs in upper management have significantly higher job passion. Those in mid-management are more dissatisfied with their income. QSs who are married/attached, older, and more experienced are significantly more dissatisfied with their workload and hours worked than singles, younger, and less experienced QSs.

Some dimensions of job satisfaction were not measured. Non-personal characteristics such as type of projects handled and type of clients were not investigated.

Employers should investigate what goes into QSs’ workload, and weed out those that are of low value and unproductive in order to reduce their workload and hours worked, and thereby increase their job satisfaction.

The study contributes to human resource management by identifying the type of QSs who are more likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs.

This study shows that personal differences of QSs affect different dimensions of their job satisfaction. To maximize job satisfaction, employers could choose QSs who have specific characteristics, make changes to the work environment or redesign their jobs.

Green building is a promising approach to improve resource efficiency and achieving sustainable development. The success of green construction projects is closely associated with the performance of project managers (PMs), while job satisfaction plays a major role in the performance of PMs. However, the emphasis placed on the job satisfaction of PMs in green construction projects remains minimal. The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships between the job satisfaction of PMs and its key influencing factors in green construction projects, and to propose feasible strategies to improve the job satisfaction of PMs.

A questionnaire survey is conducted, data collected from 105 construction PMs are analysed using structural equation modelling. Interviews with five industry experts are further conducted to substantiate the results.

The results identified four major components of job satisfaction, namely, “job content”, “resource adequacy”, “work context” and “the personality and competence of jobholders”. The analysis also found that “technical requirement” and “split incentive” condition of green construction projects, “the expertise and awareness of PMs” and “demand and support from stakeholders” has significant impacts on PMs’ job satisfaction. Furthermore, this study developed eight strategies to improve PMs’ job satisfaction, including “increase recognition opportunities for PMs”, “government incentives and financial support” and “introductory and training courses on green construction legislation and processes”.

The findings assist construction companies in formulating measures to improve the job satisfaction and performance of PMs in green construction projects.

Silver‐glass die attach materials represent a significant advance in silicon packaging technology and are expected to displace gold‐silicon eutectic bonding as the preferred method of die attachment for high reliability applications. In this paper the rle of the glass in the adhesion mechanism of silver‐glass to gold and chromium/gold backed die has been determined using thermal analysis and X‐ray diffraction in addition to scanning electron microscopy and electron probe microanalysis of the sintered film. An adhesion mechanism is proposed in which the glass of the silver‐glass system migrates to the die interface during the firing cycle and chemically bonds to the silicon which is present at the surface of the gold‐silicon eutectic. Adhesion between the die back and the silver of the die attach material is by means of a simple mechanical bond between ‘fingers’ of glass and the sintered silver matrix. Thermodynamic and kinetic considerations suggest that insufficient silicon dioxide may be formed using chromium/gold backed die for acceptable adhesion. Processing changes are proposed which resolve this adhesion problem.