The topological significance of the spectral Atiyah-Patodi-Singer η-invariant is investigated. We show that twice the fractional part of the invariant is computed by the linking pairing in K-theory with the orientation bundle of the manifold. The Pontrjagin duality implies the nondegeneracy of the linking form. An example of a nontrivial fractional part for an even-order operator is presented.

We give a formula for the η-invariant of odd order operators on even-dimensional manifolds, and for even order operators on odd-dimensional manifolds. Geometric second order operators are found with nontrivial η-invariants. This solves a problem posed by P. Gilkey.

In this thesis, the moisture characteristics of spruce plywood are studied experimentally and numerically with special attention given to moisture storage and release as the indoor humidity changes diurnally. This is referred to as the moisture buffering capacity. Two test facilities (a glass jar facility and a transient moisture transfer facility) are used to measure the moisture accumulation and temperature and relative humidity profiles within spruce plywood. These measured data are used to determine the moisture buffering capacity of spruce plywood and validate a one-dimensional transient numerical model that can be used to calculate the transient heat and moisture transfer in spruce plywood. There is good agreement between the measured and simulated results over the range of test variables investigated. </p><p>This validated numerical model is used to investigate the effect of initial conditions, boundary conditions, thickness and humidity step change on the moisture buffering capacity. In addition, sensitivity studies are performed to investigate the effect of variations in material properties used in the numerical model. The properties that are considered in these sensitivity studies are the sorption isotherm, effective thermal conductivity, heat of sorption and effective diffusion coefficient. These studies show that the sorption isotherm has the greatest effect on the moisture buffering capacity, as well as the temperature and relative humidity profiles within spruce plywood. For example, a ± 10% change in sorption isotherm has a ± 7%, ± 6% and ± 10% effect on the moisture buffering capacity, and the relative temperature and relative humidity change, respectively. </p><p>This thesis also verifies the moisture diffusivity property for spruce plywood, which was developed by Olutimayin and Simonson (2005) to account for moisture storage in cellulose insulation for a single step change in humidity. It was found that for spruce plywood, the moisture penetration depth may be over predicted by an order of magnitude when moisture storage is neglected using a transient analytic solution which does not include moisture storage.

I händelse av ett radioaktivt utsläpp är det viktigt att ha bra beredskap med skyddsåtgärder som bidrarmed det bästa skyddet för den utsatta delen av befolkningen. Direkt efter ett utsläpp utgör exponering viainandning det största problemet eftersom partiklar och gaser ännu inte hunnit deponerats på mark, imoln och så vidare. Byggnader bidrar med ett skydd mot inhalation eftersom luften utanför och inutibostaden byts ut relativt långsamt. Hur stor del av föroreningen som tar sig in till inomhusluften och hurlång tid detta tar är viktig information för att avgöra om befolkningen är tillräckligt skyddade inutibyggnader eller om evakuering bör ske. I detta arbete har kunskap från befintlig litteratur samtmodellering använts för att beskriva generella förhållanden med vilka en förorening kan ta sig in i och utur en byggnad. Differentialekvationer med huvudprocesser och ingående parametrar har studerats för attge en uppfattning om vilket skydd en byggnad kan ge mot inhalation av partiklar och gaser i ettradioaktivt moln. Olika typer av ventilationssystem med eller utan tillhörande partikelfilter diskuteras ochinhalationsdos för olika åldersklasser och aktivitetsnivåer undersöks.Genom att jämföra mängd förorening i luften utanför mot inuti en byggnad talar man om byggnadensskyddskoefficient. De tre huvudprocesser som styr transporten är ventilation, penetration samtdeponering. Ventilationen uppkommer av luftutbytet mellan inomhus‐ och utomhusluften. Ventilationenstyrs antingen mekaniskt eller naturligt. Penetrationen beskriver hur stor andel av partiklarna ellergaserna som tar sig in över byggnadens fasad och deponeringen hur partiklar och gaser tenderar attfastna på de ytor de passerar under transporten. Deponeringen sker även på samtliga ytor inutibyggnaden. Efter att ämnen deponerats kan de resuspendera och åter komma upp till luften vilketmöjliggör för inandning innan de åter kan deponera på tillgängliga ytor. Deponeringen ses som en sänkamedan resuspensionen fungerar som en källa för inomhuskoncentrationen.En av de faktorer som påverkar skyddskoefficienten till störst del är partikeldiametern eftersomdeponerings‐ och penetrationsprocessen är starkt storleksberoende. Stora och små partiklar deponeraslättare och kvar finns den så kallade mellanfraktionen, 0,2‐1 μm i diameter, som håller sig i luften längsttid. Gaser rör sig lätt in och ut ur byggnaden och hindras inte av partikelfilter. Däremot finns särskildafilter att installera som hindrar gaser att ta sig in, exempelvis kolfilter. Sönderfallshastigheten hos de olikaradionukliderna påverkar även skyddsfaktorn. Då ämnena sönderfaller minskar koncentrationen i luften,sönderfallet är då en sänka för koncentrationen inomhus. Ventilationshastigheten har en viss påverkan påskyddskoefficienten. En ökad ventilationshastighet leder till att koncentrationen inomhus kommer att gåmot penetrationsfaktorn. Detta gäller om ventilationshastigheten kan antas vara mycket större ändepositionshastigheten. Ventilationssystem utrustade med partikelfilter kan hålla en stor del avföroreningen utanför byggnaden. Partikelfiltren har olika effektivitet och klassificeras som grov‐, mediumsamtfinfilter. En hög filtereffektivitet har stor påverkan på skyddskoefficienten. Ett filter skall däremotses som en färskvara. De kräver underhåll och bör bytas ut i tid för att kunna fungera som de ska.Inhalationsdosen beror av partikelstorlek eftersom deponeringen som sker i luftvägarna fungerar påliknande sätt som i transporten in och ut ur byggnaden. Mellanfraktionen har tendens att tränga djupt nedi lungorna efter inandning. Effekten från inhalation beror på en individs ålder, storlek och fysisk aktivitet. / In case of a radioactive release, it is important to have good preparedness with the right actions to contribute the best protection for the vulnerable section of the population. Immediately after a release theexposure through inhalation will be the biggest problem, since particles and gases have not beendeposited on land, clouds and so on. Buildings contribute to protection against inhalation. The reason forthis is that the air outside and inside the dwelling is changed relatively slowly. How much of the pollutionthat enter the indoor air and how long time it takes is important information to determine if thepopulation is sufficiently protected inside buildings or if evacuation is needed. In this work knowledgefrom existing literature and modelling has been used to describe general conditions with which apollutant moves in and out of a building. Differential equations with main processes and parameters havebeen studied to give a estimation as to the protection a building can provide against exposure throughinhalation of particles and gases in a radioactive cloud. Different types of ventilation systems, with orwithout associated particle filter are discussed and inhalation dose for different age groups and activitylevels are examined.A buildings protection coefficient is defined by comparing the amount of pollution in the air outside withthe air inside a building. The three main processes that control the transport of the pollution in and outfrom a building are ventilation, penetration and deposition. Ventilation arises of air exchange betweenindoor and outdoor air. Ventilation is controlled either mechanically or naturally. Penetration describesthe proportion of the particles or gases that enter trough the buildings shell. Deposition of particles andgases accurse due to the fact that they tend to stick to the surfaces they pass in transit. The deposition alsooccurs on all surfaces inside the building. After the particles and gases have become deposited, they mayre‐suspend and come back up into the air permitting inhalation before they once more deposit onavailable surfaces. The deposit is seen as a sink while re‐suspension acts as a source for indoor airconcentration.One of the factors that have a large impact of a buildings protection factor is the particle diameter, due tothe deposition and penetration process strongly dependent on particles size. Large and small particlesdeposited easier and the remaining fraction, the midfraction (0.2 to 1 micron in diameter), remains. Thisfraction will stay in the air longer since the deposition process does not affect it strongly. Gases moveeasily in and out of the building and are not prevented by the particle filter. However, there are specialfilters to install that prevent gases to penetrate, such as carbon filters. The rate of decay of the variousradionuclides also affects the protection factor. When nuclides decay the concentration in the airdecreases, the decay is then a sink of the concentration indoors. Ventilation rate has a certain influence onprotection coefficient. An increased ventilation rate leads to the concentration inside approaching thepenetration factor; this is applied if the ventilation rate can be assumed to be much higher than thedeposit rate. Ventilation system equipped with a particle filter can keep a large part of the pollutantoutside the building. Particle filters have different efficiency and are classified as coarse, medium and finefilter. High filter efficiency has a major impact on the protection coefficient. For a filter to functionproperly it demands maintenance and should be replaced in time.Inhalation dose depends on the particle size, since the deposition process affected in respiratory functionis similar to the transport in and out of a building. The midfraction tends to penetrate deep into the lungsafter inhalation. The effect of inhalation is due to an individual's age, size, and physical activity.

In this thesis, a method to calculate scaling function coefficients for a new bi-orthogonal wavelet family derived directly from an impulse response waveform is presented. In literature, the Daubechies wavelets (DB wavelet) and the Morlet wavelet are the most commonly used wavelets for the dyadic wavelet transform (DWT) and the continuous wavelet transform (CWT), respectively. For a specific vibration signal processing application, a wavelet basis that is similar or is derived directly from the signal being studied proves to be superior to the commonly used wavelet basis. To assure a wavelet basis has a direct relationship to the signal being studied, a new formula is proposed to calculate coefficients which capture the characteristics of an impulse response waveform. The calculated coefficients are then used to develop a new bi-orthogonal wavelet family.

No description available.

This work presents first-principles calculations of long-range intermolecular dispersion energies between two atoms or molecules and of electronic circular dichroism spectra of chiral molecules. The former is expressed in terms of the C6 dipole-dipole dispersion coefficients Δε, and the latter is given in terms of the extinction coefficient. In a series of publications, the complex linear polarization propagator method has been shown to be a powerful tool to provide accurate ab initio and first-principles density functional theory results. This was the case not only for the C6 dispersion coefficients but also for the electronic circular dichroism at an arbitrary wavelength ranging from the optical to the X-ray regions of the spectrum. The selected samples for the investigation of dispersion interactions in the electronic ground state are the noble gases, n-alkanes, polyacenes, azabenzenes, alkali-metal clusters, and C60. It is found that the values of C6 for the sodium-cluster-to-fullerene interactions are well within the error bars of the experiment. The proposed method can also be used to determine dispersion energies for species in their respective excited electronic states. The C6 dispersion coefficients for the first π → π* excited state of the azabenzene molecules have been obtained with the adopted method in the multiconfiguration self-consistent field approximation. The dispersion energy of the π → π* excited state is smaller than that of the ground state. It is found that the characteristic frequencies ω1 defined in the London approximation of n-alkanes vary in a narrow range which makes it possible to construct a simple structure-to-property relationship based on the number of π-bonds for the dispersion interaction in these saturated compounds. However, this simple approach is not applicable to the interactions of the π-conjugated systems since, depending on the systems, their characteristic frequencies ω1 can vary greatly. In addition, an accomplishment of calculations of the electronic circular dichroism spectra in the near-edge X-ray absorption has been demonstrated.

Faraday modulation spectroscopy (FAMOS) is a laser-based spectroscopic dispersion technique for detection of paramagnetic molecules in gas phase. This thesis presents both a new theoretical description of FAMOS and experimental results from the ultra-violet (UV) as well as the mid-infrared (MIR) regions. The theoretical description, which is given in terms of the integrated linestrength and Fourier coefficients of modulated dispersion and absorption lineshape functions, facilitates the description and the use of the technique considerably. It serves as an extension to the existing FAMOS model that thereby incorporates also the effects of lineshape asymmetries primarily originating from polarization imperfections. It is shown how the Fourier coefficients of modulated Lorentzian lineshape functions, applicable to the case with fully collisionally broadened transitions, can be expressed in terms of analytical functions. For the cases where also Doppler broadening needs to be included, resulting in lineshapes of Voigt type, the lineshape functions can be swiftly evaluated (orders of magnitude faster than previous procedures) by a newly developed method for rapid calculation of modulated Voigt lineshapes (the WWA-method). All this makes real-time curve fitting to FAMOS spectra feasible. Two experimental configurations for sensitive detection of nitric oxide (NO) by the FAMOS technique are considered and their optimum conditions are determined. The two configurations target transitions originating from the overlapping Q22(21=2) and QR12(21=2) transitions in the ultra-violet (UV) region (227nm) and the Q3=2(3=2)-transition in the fundamental rotational-vibrational band in the mid-infrared (MIR) region (5.33 µm). It is shown that the implementations of FAMOS in the UV- and MIR-region can provide detection limits in the low ppb range, which opens up the possibility for applications where high detection sensitivities of NO is required.

The problem of modeling systems from frequency response measurements is of interest to many engineers. In electronics, we wish to construct a macromodel from tabulated impedance, admittance or scattering parameters to incorporate it into a circuit simulator for performing circuit analyses. Structural engineers employ frequency response functions to determine the natural frequencies and damping coefficients of the underlying structure. Subspace identification, popular among control engineers, and vector fitting, used by electronics engineers, are examples of algorithms developed for this problem. This thesis has three goals. 1. For multi-port devices, currently available algorithms arc expensive. This thesis therefore proposes an approach based on the Loewner matrix pencil constructed in the context of tangential interpolation with several possible implementations. They are fast, accurate, build low dimensional models, and are especially designed for a large number of terminals. For noise-free data, they identify the underlying system, rather than merely fitting the measurements. For noisy data, their performance is analyzed for different noise levels introduced in the measurements and an improved version, which identifies an approximation of the original system even for large noise values, is proposed. 2. This thesis addresses the problem of generating parametric models from measurements performed with respect to the frequency, but also with respect to one or more design parameters, which could relate to geometry or material properties. These models are suited for performing optimization over the design variables. The proposed approach generalizes the Loewner matrix to data depending on two variables. 3. This thesis analyzes the convergence properties of vector fitting, an iterative algorithm that relocates the poles of the model, given some "starting poles" chosen heuristically. It was recognized as a reformulation of the Sanathanan-Koerner iteration and several authors attempted to improve its convergence properties, but a thorough convergence analysis has been missing. Numerical examples show that for high signal to noise ratios, the iteration is convergent, while for low ones, it may diverge. Hence, incorporating a Newton step aims at making the iteration always convergent for "starting poles" chosen close to the solution. A connection between vector fitting and the Loewner framework is exhibited, which resolves the issue of choosing the starting poles.

Land use changes such as lowering of lakes, draining of wetlands and channelizing of streams have affected the hydrological environment in many catchment areas. Numerous studies report that these changes affect the nutrient retention. The river Svärtaå catchment, near Nyköping is identified as one of the areas in Sweden that transport most phosphorus and nitrogen to the Baltic Sea per unit area. The aim of this study was therefore to analyse to which extent land use changes such as lowering of lakes, draining of wetlands and channelizing of streams have affected the nutrient transport to the Baltic Sea. Land use changes were to a large extent performed between the years 1880 and 1930 inSweden, historical maps from the late 19th century have therefore been studied. An application based on the concept of a Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used in order to compare the district map from late 19th century and the terrain map from today. To address the nutrient transport retention coefficients have been found in the literature and implemented on the changes in water area.  Changes in the hydrological environment reached totally1068 ha,964 hawere decreasing water areas and104 haincreasing water areas. Wet areas totally decreased with 28 % when the historical setting was compared with the contemporary environment. The loss in wet area represents860 ha. Watercourses with riparian zones have decreased with 54 %, bogs with 53 %, wetlands with 43 % and lakes with 13 %. The loss in retained mass regarding phosphorus was, based on calculations involving retention coefficients, 7,18 – 146 tonnes, and regarding nitrogen 37,9 – 941 tonnes. The changes in the catchment are probably connected to measures like lowering of lakes, draining of wetlands and channelizing of streams. The assumed lost retained masses shows to be high compared to the measured output from the catchment. This leads to questioning of the retention coefficients and the vast range between them, as well as questioning of other assumptions in the method. The consequences of the hydrological changes are therefore difficult to evaluate.