This master's thesis deals with physical simulation of cars. Program is implemented in C++ using OpenSceneGraph and Bullet libraries, which are shortly introduced. The application is implemented as simple racing game for one or two players. Using a simple menu, the user can select a car and the weather, which dramatically affects the handling characteristics of vehicles. Setting weather to random is one of the options leading to a dynamic weather changes during the game. The application takes into account collisions among cars and collisions with the terrain and bars on a racing circuit.

The thesis deals with the changes of a cable robot to a manipulator. The mechanical changes are mostly about adding an active part to a moving platform with the ability to transfer objects and the effort to exchange the silicon cables for metal ones. The main part of the thesis is the proposed design and implementation of the algorithm for detection of a possible collision of the cable robot with an object in its working space.

An extension of the nonadiabatic quantum molecular dynamics approach is presented to account for electron-nuclear correlations in the dynamics of atomic many-body systems. The method combines electron dynamics described within time-dependent density-functional or Hartree-Fock theory with trajectory-surface-hopping dynamics for the nuclei, allowing us to take into account explicitly a possible external laser field. As a case study, a model system of H++H collisions is considered where full quantum-mechanical calculations are available for comparison. For this benchmark system the extended surface-hopping scheme exactly reproduces the full quantum results. Future applications are briefly outlined.

MadGraph5 is used to generate events with Higgs boson pairs from vector boson fusion (VBF) at leading-order (LO) and next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy in QCD. The simulations are used to compute fiducial cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, using several kinematic cuts on the outgoing jets, e.g. the jet transverse momenta and pseudorapidity. The resulting cross-sections for NLO and LO are compared and their ratio,  the K-factor, is calculated for every kinematic cut. An attempt is made to extend the NLO simulation for non-Standard Model (SM) couplings between two vector bosons and two Higgs bosons (VVHH), however the corresponding model was found to be only compatible with LO accuracy in QCD.

We investigated after effects of automation in take-over scenarios in a high-end moving-base driving simulator. Drivers performed evasive manoeuvres encountering a blocked lane in highway driving. We compared the performance of drivers 1) during manual driving, 2) after automated driving with eyes on the road while performing the cognitively demanding n-back task, and 3) after automated driving with eyes off the road performing the visually demanding SuRT task. Both minimum time to collision (TTC) and minimum clearance towards the obstacle disclosed a substantial number of near miss events and are regarded as valuable surrogate safety metrics in evasive manoeuvres. TTC proved highly sensitive to the applied definition of colliding paths, and we prefer robust solutions using lane position while disregarding heading. The extended time to collision (ETTC) which takes into account acceleration was close to the more robust conventional TTC. In line with other publications, the initial steering or braking intervention was delayed after using automation compared to manual driving. This resulted in lower TTC values and stronger steering and braking actions. Using automation, effects of cognitive distraction were similar to visual distraction for the intervention time with effects on the surrogate safety metric TTC being larger with visual distraction. However the precision of the evasive manoeuvres was hardly affected with a similar clearance towards the obstacle, similar overshoots and similar excursions to the hard shoulder. Further research is needed to validate and complement the current simulator based results with human behaviour in real world driving conditions. Experiments with real vehicles can disclose possible systematic differences in behaviour, and naturalistic data can serve to validate surrogate safety measures like TTC and obstacle clearance in evasive manoeuvres.

Modeling molecular structures is critical for understanding the principles that govern the behavior of molecules and for facilitating the exploration of potential pharmaceutical drugs and nanoscale designs. Biological molecules are flexible bodies that can adopt many different shapes (or conformations) until they reach a stable molecular state that is usually described by the minimum internal energy. A major challenge in modeling flexible molecules is the exponential explosion in computational complexity as the molecular size increases and many degrees of freedom are considered to represent the molecules' flexibility. This research work proposes a novel generic computational geometric approach called enhanced BioGeoFilter (g.eBGF) that geometrically interprets inter-atomic interactions to impose geometric constraints during molecular conformational search to reduce the time for identifying chemically-feasible conformations. Two new methods called Kinematics-Based Differential Evolution (kDE) and Biological Differential Evolution (BioDE) are also introduced to direct the molecular conformational search towards low energy (stable) conformations. The proposed kDE method kinematically describes a molecule's deformation mechanism while it uses differential evolution to minimize the inta-molecular energy. On the other hand, the proposed BioDE utilizes our developed g.eBGF data structure as a surrogate approximation model to reduce the number of exact evaluations and to speed the molecular conformational search. This research work will be extremely useful in enabling the modeling of flexible molecules and in facilitating the exploration of nanoscale designs through the virtual assembly of molecules. Our research work can also be used in areas such as molecular docking, protein folding, and nanoscale computer-aided design where rapid collision detection scheme for highly deformable objects is essential.

The degradation of bridge edge beam systems in Sweden entailed the study of new alternativedesigns, which may become more optimal from a life-cycle perspective than the currenttypical solution used (concrete integrated). Subsequently, a U-shaped steel edge beamproposed by the consulting engineering group Ramböll was considered by the SwedishTransport Administration for its use in a real bridge project. This thesis follows theimplementation of this alternative in a bridge project.The goals of the thesis are to study the development of the U-shaped steel edge beam solutionin the case study, and to identify the key factors behind it. The case study consists of a roadframe bridge where a heavily damaged bridge edge beam system is going to be replaced.For the structural design of the solution, a static linear analysis of a vehicle collision has beencarried out with the help of Finite Element Modelling and current codes. The report shows themodelling of the design solution throughout different development phases in the project. Thecommercial software used has been LUSAS.As an outcome of the project, four models have been designed and analysed, two of themdeveloped by the author as proposed solutions. The factors behind the different changes in thedesign have been identified as: (1) structural resistance, (2) constructability and (3) the use ofstainless steel. Moreover, the connection between the steel edge beam and the concrete slabhas been the main critical part for the structural resistance. Finally, the current preliminarymodel at the moment this thesis is written, which was proposed in the project meetings, meetsthe requirements from a structural point of view.

Detta examensarbete har undersökt möjligheterna att kombinera multi-master databasreplikeringstekniker tillsammans med en LEMP-stack på små servrar för att öka tillgängligheten av e-Learning tjänster i avlägsna områden i Tanzania. Målet var att utvärdera kombinationen av Symmetric DS för databas synkronisering och kollitionsdetektering och resolution med e-Learning systemet Moodle. Detta gjordes genom att en litteraturstudie genomfördes och uppföjdes av implementation och konfiguration på plats i Tanzania. Slutsatsen var att de för projektet utvalda teknologierna, mjukvaran och hårdvaran var konfigurerbar i teorin men ohållbart kostsam att implementera i praktiken. / This research has investigated the possibility to combine multi-master database replication technologies together with a LEMP-stack on tiny servers to increase the availability of e-Learning services in remote areas in Tanzania. The aim was to evaluate the combination of Symmetric DS for multi master database replication and conflict detection and resolution with the e-learning system Moodle. This was done by conducting a literature study of relevant technologies followed by implementation and configuration at the location. The conclusion was that the technologies, software and hardware chosen for the project were configurable in theory but not viable to implement and maintain in practice.

Mass spectrometry of negative ions is a convenient method for generating, isolating, and analyzing reactive intermediates that would otherwise be too short lived to detect. This ion approach is especially useful for studying the chemical properties of radicals. In this work, a negative charge-carrying group was attached to lignin model compounds and combined with collision-induced dissociation (CID) to generate and characterize radical species involved in the primary pyrolysis of lignin. The charge-tag served to increase the sensitivity of the model compounds using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and promoted charge-remote fragmentations (CRF) upon being collisionally activated. The resulting product ions were comparable to the primary pyrolysis products of lignin; thus, CID-CRF proved to be an effective way of identifying the mechanisms by which lignin decomposes in the gas phase. <br><div><br></div><div>Additionally, this dissertation includes a review of nitrene anions. Nitrene anions are another class of reactive intermediates protected by an electron that provide a means for studying the corresponding neutral molecules via electron photodetachment spectroscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy. The added electron makes it possible for protected nitrene anions to be manipulated by external electric and magnetic fields of a mass spectrometer. Nitrene anions also display their own unique reactivities as reagents, which have been investigated using ion/molecule reactions. Mass spectrometry of negative ions has thereby provided information on the electronic states, reactivities, and thermochemical properties of nitrene intermediates.</div>

<p>    Drift tubes (DT) are prominent tools used in Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) to separate ions in the gas phase due to their difference in mobility. While prominently used for small ions (< 10nm), their use for larger particles (up to 100nm) is limited and can only be attempted at atmospheric pressure due to diffusion. A system that specializes in high sensitivity larger particles (up to 1000nm) is the Differential Mobility Analyzer (DMA), but lacks in resolution (< 10 for particles 30-1000nm). The idea behind this work is to be able to design a new IMS system based on similar<br> principles to the DT but that allows high resolution and sensitivity for a large range of sizes if possible. The primary idea revolves around the principle of non-constant linear fields to try and control the width of the ion packet as it travels through the system. The first attempt was an Inverted Drift Tube (IDT) which lacked sufficient<br> sensitivity. This was followed by the development of the Varying Field Drift Tube (VFDT) which was the first of such systems to perform better than a regular DT, but only marginally. Finally, the last version of the system included a secondary pulse and labeled High Voltage Pulse - Varying Field Drift Tube (HVP-VFDT), which solved<br> some of the issues of the VFDT and was able to achieve resolving powers of 250, 3-5 times higher than regular DT.</p> <p><br>    In the IDT system, a gas flow is used to drive the packet of ions through the drift region while a linearly increasing electric field which is in the opposite direction of the flow is used to slow down the ions and separate them. In this regime it is the largest ions that arrive at the detector first, hence the name Inverted Drift Tube.This technique would allow larger ions and particles to be detected. At the same time, the linear field can be shown to have diffusion constriction (auto-correction) properties, where the broad distributions may be narrowed in the axial direction. However, the gas flow is difficult to control well and the parabolic velocity profile of the gas flow in the tube is a unfavorable factor for the system. </p> <p><br></p> <p>    To avoid the issue of the parabolic velocity but still take into account the VFDT takes the advantage of the diffusion auto-correction, the gas flow is suppressed and a linearly decreasing field is used to drive the ions. By solving the Nernst-Planck equation, we show that the VFDT has a spatial resolving power that is much higher than that of the regular DT. A DT was built and tested using a mixture of tetraalkylammonium salts. The transformation from the raw variable arrival time distribution to collision cross section or mobility diameter is derived and the linear relationship<br> makes it simple for calibration and transformation. A resolving power of over 90 is achieved experimentally although higher resolving powers were expected theory. <br>  <br>  It turns out that the difference between theory and experiments had to do with the fact that in the VFDT, the spatial and time resolving powers are different.This<br> is due to the low drift velocity at the end of the drift tube. To increase this velocity, a high voltage pulse is applied at a certain time depending on the ion/s of interest with a new system, HVP-VFDT. The system was tested numerically and experimentally where several parameters where tested resulting in a higher resolving powers when compared with DT and VFDT systems.The simulation results showed that the transmission efficiency and resolving power can be controlled by raising or lowering the field. Overall, the experimental setup tested reached resolving powers of 250 with moderate gate pulses. The HVP-VFDT system also shows that the distribution may be narrowed over the initial one, something impossible with a real drift tube and<br> opens a myriad of possibilities, including resolving powers of several thousands under low pressure and RF fields. <br>    <br>  The next step will be to couple the system to a Mass Spectrometer which is expected to be completed in the near future. To understand how a DT works with   RF fields and low pressure, a collaboration was done with David Clemmer’s lab and his 4 meter drift tube that can achieve resolutions of 150 in Helium at 4torr. Here, we tested a set of polymers and compared the results to those acquired in Nitrogen with a DMA. The shape and structure of the polymers in the gas phase was studied showing<br> self-similar assemblies that corresponds to a globule with an appendix sticking out. <br>  <br>    </p>