Magister Scientiae - MSc / The development of a deuterium-deuterium/ tritium-deuterium (D-D/ D-T) pulsed neutron generator based on the principle of the Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation (PI3) technique is presented, in terms of investigating development of a compact system to generate an ultra short burst of mono-energetic neutrons (of order 1010 per second) during a short period of time (< 20μs) at repetition rates up to 1 kHz. The system will facilitate neutron detection techniques, such as neutron back-scattering, neutron radiography and time-of-flight activation analysis. Aspects addressed in developing the system includes (a) characterizing the neutron spectra generated as a function of the target configuration/ design to ensure a sustained intense neutron flux for long periods of time, (b) the system was also characterised as a function of power supply operating conditions such as voltage, current, gas pressure and plasma density. / South Africa

Aux futurs collisionneurs linéaires et circulaires, la présence d’un halo autour du faisceau est susceptible de fortement limiter les performances, et peut également activer, voire endommager, les composants de l’accélérateur. Le halo doit par conséquent est contrôlé par un système de collimateurs efficace. Pour évaluer l’impact sur les expériences de physique des particules ainsi que les efficacités de collimation, une bonne compréhension des mécanismes physiques générateurs de halo est essentielle, pour par exemple prédire les distributions de probabilité de manière fiable. Pour ce faire, une investigation systématique ont été menée à l’Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) du KEK dans le cadre de cette thèse, d’abord à travers une analyse théorique des principales sources de halo dans ATF, puis moyennant le développement et l’implémentation de diagnostiques dédiés aux mesures du halo, dont les résultat sont ensuite présentés et comparés aux prédictions théoriques. Le halo produit par la diffusion des particules du faisceau sur les noyaux des molécules du gaz résiduel dans la chambre à vide (« Beam Gas Scattering » - BGS) est d’abord estimé analytiquement, avec certaines approximations, puis moyennant une simulation Monte-Carlo. Un nombre considérable de particules de halo BGS est prédit, ainsi qu’une dépendance dans la pression de gaz résiduel. Pour étudier la possible formation d’un halo par le mécanisme de diffusion intra-paquet à grand angle dit de « Touschek » en présence d’une dispersion optique résiduelle, le taux de cette diffusion a été estimé en fonction de plusieurs paramètres faisceau pertinents. Une simulation Monte-Carlo de la diffusion intra-faisceau à petit angle (IBS) et de « Touschek » est aussi en cours de développement. Pour tester les prédictions théoriques, les performances d’un détecteur de halo déjà existant basé sur un capteur diamant ont été améliorées moyennant une technique de repondération qui a permis d’en augmenter la gamme dynamique jusqu’à 10⁵. Afin de disposer d’un instrument complémentaire pour mesurer le halo, un moniteur YAG/OTR a aussi été conçu, construit et installé dans la ligne d’extraction d’ATF. Il a pu être montré que la gamme dynamique et la résolution de ce moniteur YAGOTR sont, respectivement, autour de 10⁵ et inférieure à 10 μm. Grâce aux diagnostiques développés pour mesurer le halo du faisceau d’ATF, les distributions transverses et en énergie ont pu être étudiées. L’accord satisfaisant obtenu entre les prédictions théoriques et les mesures, ainsi qu’une dépendance importante dans la pression de gaz résiduel, ont permis de montrer que la distribution verticale du halo est dominée par le mécanisme BGS. Par contre, la distribution horizontale est bien supérieure aux prédictions BGS, et est par ailleurs asymétrique. L’asymétrie observée peut être en partie reliée à la qualité du champ de l’élément pulsé servant à l’extraction du faisceau d’ATF, ainsi qu’à certaines aberrations dans le transport optique. La distribution de probabilité du halo en fonction de l’énergie a par ailleurs pu être mesurée, grâce à une technique nouvelle d’ajustement de la dispersion optique dans le plan vertical, et a été trouvée compatible qualitativement avec le mécanisme de diffusion « Touschek ». Un scénario plausible de génération du halo dans le plan horizontal a ainsi pu être suggéré. / At future linear and circular colliders, beam halo can strongly limit machine performances, cause as well component damage and activation, and should, therefore, be controlled by an efficient collimation system. To evaluate the impact on particle physics experiments and collimation efficiencies, a clear understanding of beam halo formation mechanisms is essential, e.g., to predict halo distribution reliably. For this purpose, systematic investigations have been carried out at the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) of KEK. In this dissertation, the theoretical analysis of the primary halo sources at ATF and the development of dedicated halo diagnostics are presented. Measurements of beam halo at ATF are also described and compared with the theoretical predictions. Beam halo arising from Beam-Gas Scattering (BGS) in the damping ring was firstly estimated through analytical approximations and a Monte Carlo simulation. A considerable amount of halo particles generated by BGS and the corresponding vacuum dependence have been predicted. To explore the probability of beam halo formation from Touschek scattering in the presence of dispersion, the Touschek scattering rate was estimated with respect to relevant beam parameters. Furthermore, a Monte Carlo simulation of Intra-Beam Scattering (IBS) and Touschek scattering is under development. To probe the theoretical predictions, the performance of an already existing diamond sensor detector was optimized via a data rescaling technique to increase the dynamic range to 1×10⁵. For a complementary diagnostics of beam halo, a YAG/OTR monitor was also designed and installed in the extraction section of ATF2. The dynamic range and resolution of the YAG/OTR monitor have been shown to be around 1×10⁵ and less than 10 μm, respectively. Thanks to the halo monitors developed at ATF2, the transverse halo and momentum tail have been studied. Satisfactory agreement between numerical predictions and measurements as well as a significant vacuum dependence indicate that the BGS process dominates the vertical halo. On the other hand, the horizontal halo appeared to be higher than the prediction from BGS, and moreover asymmetric. The observed asymmetry was shown to be related to the quality of the extraction kicker field and optical aberration. Finally, the momentum tail was for the first time observed by implementing a novel scheme of vertical dispersion adjustment and was found to be qualitatively consistent with the presence of Touschek scattering. A possible scenario for horizontal beam halo formation from Touschek scattering was also suggested.

Tato práce se zabývá analyzováním IEEE 802.1Q standardu TSN skupiny a návrhem testovacího modulu. Testovací modul je napsán v jazyku VHDL a je možné jej implementovat do Intel Stratix® V GX FPGA (5SGXEA7N2F45C2) vývojové desky. Standard IEEE 802.1Q (TSN) definuje deterministickou komunikace přes Ethernet sít, v reálném čase, požíváním globálního času a správným rozvrhem vysíláním a příjmem zpráv. Hlavní funkce tohoto standardu jsou: časová synchronizace, plánování provozu a konfigurace sítě. Každá z těchto funkcí je definovaná pomocí více různých podskupin tohoto standardu. Podle definice IEEE 802.1Q standardu je možno tyto podskupiny vzájemně libovolně kombinovat. Některé podskupiny standardu nemohou fungovat nezávisle, musí využívat funkce jiných podskupin standardu. Realizace funkce podskupin standardu je možná softwarově, hardwarově, nebo jejich kombinací. Na základě výše uvedených fakt, implementace podskupin standardu, které jsou softwarově související, byly vyloučené. Taky byly vyloučené podskupiny standardů, které jsou závislé na jiných podskupinách. IEEE 802.1Qbu byl vybrán jako vhodná část pro realizaci hardwarového testu. Různé způsoby testování byly vysvětleny jako DFT, BIST, ATPG a další jiné techniky. Pro hardwarové testování byla vybrána „Protocol Aware (PA)“technika, protože tato technika zrychluje testování, dovoluje opakovanou použitelnost a taky zkracuje dobu uvedení na trh. Testovací modul se skládá ze dvou objektů (generátor a monitor), které mají implementovanou IEEE 802.1Qbu podskupinu standardu. Funkce generátoru je vygenerovat náhodné nebo nenáhodné impulzy a potom je poslat do testovaného zařízeni ve správném definovaném protokolu. Funkce monitoru je přijat ethernet rámce a ověřit jejich správnost. Objekty jsou navrhnuty stejným způsobem na „TOP“úrovni a skládají se ze čtyř modulů: Avalon MM rozhraní, dvou šablon a jednoho portu. Avalon MM rozhraní bylo vytvořeno pro komunikaci softwaru s hardwarem. Tento modul přijme pakety ze softwaru a potom je dekóduje podle definovaného protokolu a „pod-protokolu “. „Pod-protokol“se skládá z příkazu a hodnoty daného příkazu. Podle dekódovaného příkazu a hodnot daných příkazem je kontrolovaný celý objekt. Šablona se používá na generování nebo ověřování náhodných nebo nenáhodných dat. Dvě šablony byly implementovány pro expresní ověřování nebo preempční transakce, definované IEEE 802.1Qbu. Porty byly vytvořené pro komunikaci mezi testovaným zařízením a šablonou podle daného standardu. Port „generátor“má za úkol vybrat a vyslat rámce podle priority a času vysílaní. Port „monitor“přijme rámce do „content-addressable memory”, která ověřuje priority rámce a podle toho je posílá do správné šablony. Výsledky prokázaly, že tato testovací technika dosahuje vysoké rychlosti a rychlé implementace.

PCM test structures are commonly used to check the produced wafers from the standpoint of the technologist. In general these structures are managed inside the FAB and are focused on standard device properties. Hence their development and analysis is not driven by analog circuit blocks, which are sensitive or often used. Especially for DFM/Y of analog circuits the correlation between design and technology has to be defined. The knowledge of electrical behavior of test structures helps to improve the designer's sensitivity to technological questions. This paper presents a method to bring the PCM methodology into the analog circuit design to improve design performance, yield estimation and technology correlation. We show how both analog circuit and PCM blocks can be simulated and analyzed in the design phase.

Bakgrund: Privata företag förväntas ha färre finansieringsmöjligheter än publika börsnoterade företag, vilket gör privata företag mer begränsade till extern skuldfinansiering från kreditinstitut. Kostnaden för den externa skuldfinansieringen påverkas av kreditgivarens riskbedömning och det kontrollbehov som bland annat uppstår på grund av agentkonflikten mellan långivare och låntagare. Vi ämnar därför undersöka hur ägaren och ägarens val av styrelse och extern revisor kan reducera agentkonflikten och därmed reducera företagens räntekostnader vid extern skuldfinansiering. Syfte: Syftet med vår uppsats är att undersöka huruvida ägarkoncentrationen samt ägarens val av styrelse och extern revisor påverkar företagens externa räntekostnader i privata svenska aktiebolag. Metod: Studiens ansats är av deduktiv art utifrån en tvärsnittsdesign. Studien utgår från en kvantitativ metod för att testa studiens hypoteser utifrån ett urval av medelstora privata svenska aktiebolag. Resultat: Ägarkoncentrationen, styrelsens storlek samt styrelsens oberoende har ingen signifikant påverkan på räntekostnaden. Däremot visar resultaten i studien att det finns ett signifikant negativt samband mellan räntekostnaden och valet att utse en extern revisor från Big4. / Background: Private companies are expected to have fewer funding opportunities than public listed companies, which makes private companies more dependent on external debt financing from credit institutions. The cost of the external debt financing is affected by the lenders risk assessment and the need for control that naturally appears because of the agency conflict between lenders and borrowers. We aim to examine how the owner and the owner’s choice of board of directors and external auditor can reduce the agency conflict and thus reduce the companies interest costs in external debt financing. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate if the owner concentration as well as the owner’s choice of board composition and external auditor, affects the external interest costs of private Swedish limited companies. Method: The study’s approach is deductive in nature and based on a cross sectional design. The study is based on a quantitative method for testing the hypotheses, based on selection of medium-sized private Swedish limited companies. Conclusions: The ownership concentration, the board size and the board independence have no significant influence on the interest rate. The study does however show a significant negative correlation between the interest rate and the choice to appoint an external auditor from one of the Big4.

Sustainable development as a research topic is becoming more prevalent across different fields. From a computer science perspective sustainability can incorporate anything from how to develop low-resource-use algorithms to human-computer-interaction oriented applications for behavior change. Eco-feedback systems is the collective term for solutions that can give consumers feedback regarding the environmental impact from their product use. This thesis explores how Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) and eco-feedback can be merged for a digital context, i.e. during the use of computers and software. Two design prototypes were developed where one was considered neutral and the other had PSD applied. The prototypes were included in two separate questionnaires and distributed to capture participants' use intention and perceived persuasive potential of the different designs. Further on, the PSD prototype was used in a usability test and short interview with the intention to gather more opinions in addition to the questionnaire. The results show no significant difference in the response towards the neutral against the persuasive systems design. In total the perceived ease of use and usability score high, meaning the participants regard the design to be easy to use. The response differs greatly when it comes to usefulness and intention to use a similar system in the future. The results of this thesis give an indication of where the user interest is currently at. However, further evaluation and more research is necessary to develop stronger conclusions regarding how different users perceive eco-feedback systems.

Gamma-ray burst light curves are notoriously irregular, yet a significant number consists of a single fast-rising, exponentially decaying pulse. These are called single-peaked light curves. The goal of this thesis is to analyse a sample of 2710 GRBs collected by the Fermi space telescope by identifying single-peaked bursts and comparing their properties to those of the multi-peaked bursts. Furthermore, the validity of the relativistic shock breakout theory as an explanation for single-peaked, low-luminosity GRBs is investigated using a closure relation. For this investigation, the Fermi sample wascomplemented by low-luminosity GRBs observed by other instruments. A criterion for selecting single-peaked bursts was successfully developed, yielding 48% long and 79% short, single-peaked GRBs. Significant differences between the populations were found in multiple properties. In general, single-peaked GRBs appear to be weaker and more slowly varying than multi-peaked ones; however, a larger sample of GRBs with redshift measurements is needed to draw conclusions about possible intrinsic differences in energy connected to the progenitor systems. The investigation of low-luminosity GRBs’ compliance with the shock breakout closure relation showed that 64% of the low-luminosity GRBs were within a factor 5 of fulfilling the relation as opposed to only 24% of high-luminosity GRBs. It was further shown that only a small number (&lt; 5%) of Fermi GRBs without redshift measurements could be low-luminosity shock breakout GRBs according to this theory. In conclusion, while the shock breakout closure relation does hold for a greater proportion of low-luminosity GRBs than high-luminosity GRBs, there is still a large number of low-luminosity GRBs left unexplained by this theory. / Gammablixtljuskurvor är ökänt oregelbundna men en betydande andel består av en enda snabbt stigande och exponentiellt avtagande puls. Dessa kallas singelpeakade ljuskurvor. Målet med detta examensarbete är att analysera de 2710 gammablixtar som Fermirymdteleskopet har observerat genom att identifiera singelpeakade blixtar och jämföra deras egenskaper med multipeakade blixtars. Dessutom undersöks den relativistiska shockbreakoutteorin som förklaringsmodell för singelpeakade lågluminositetsgammablixtar. I denna undersökning kompletterades fermiblixtarna med lågluminositetsblixtar från andra instrument. Ett kriterium för identifikation av singelpeakade gammablixtar utvecklades och detta resulterade i 48% långa och 70% korta, singelpeakade gammablixtar. Flertalet egenskaper uppvisade signifikanta skillnader mellan populationerna. I allmänhet verkar singelpeakade gammablixtar vara svagare och variera långsammare än multipeakade. Dock behövs en större population av gammablixtar med uppmätta rödskift för att med säkerhet kunna avgöra om singelpeakade blixtar verkligen släpper ut mindre energi. Undersökningen av huruvida lågluminositetsgammablixtar kan förklaras med shockbreakoutteorin visade att 64% av lågluminositetsblixtarna uppfyllde kravet upp till en faktor fem medan bara 24% av högluminositetsblixtarna gjorde det. Vidare visades att endast ett litet antal (&lt;5%) av fermiblixtarna utan uppmätta rödskift skulle kunna vara lågluminositetsshockbreakoutblixtar enligt denna teori. Även om shockbreakoutteorin kan förklara en större andel av lågluminositetsblixtarna än högluminositetsblixtarna återstår ett stort antal oförklarade lågluminositetsblixtar.

This dissertation is a collection of studies that investigates the issue of air pollution in the field of environmental chemistry. My thesis consists of research works done to measure the concentration of particulate matter (PM) and gas-phase species in ambient air. High concentrations of PM is a significant problem in Utah and in other regions of the world. Particles having an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 micrometers and smaller play a crucial role in air pollution and pose serious health risks when inhaled. PM is composed of both organic and inorganic components. The organic fraction in PM ranges from 10-90% of the total particle mass. Several methods have been employed to measure the organic fraction of PM, but these techniques require extensive laboratory analysis, expensive bench top equipment, and do a poor job of capturing diurnal variations of the concentrations of ambient organic compounds. The Hansen Lab has developed a new instrument called the Organic Aerosol Monitor (OAM) which is based on gas chromatography followed by mass spectrometry detection platform for measuring the carbonaceous component of PM2.5 on an hourly averaged basis. Organic marker data collected in 2016 using the OAM was used in a Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis to identify the sources of PM in West Valley City, Utah. Additionally, data was collected in Richfield and Vernal, UT in 2017 - 2018 to quantitatively monitor the composition of organic markers of PM2.5. Some previously unidentified organic compounds in PM were successfully identified during this study, including terpenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), diethyl phthalate, some herbicides, and pesticides. Gas-phase species play a significant role in driving the formation of air pollutants in Earth's atmosphere. Traditional gas detection methods do not provide high temporally and spatially resolved data; therefore, it becomes important to detect and measure gas-phase species both qualitatively and quantitatively to better understand the sources of air pollution. An incoherent broadband cavity enhanced absorption spectrometer (IBBCEAS) combines a broadband incoherent light source, a stable optical cavity formed by two highly reflective mirrors and a charged-coupled device (CCD) detector to quantitatively measure the gas-phase compounds present in the atmosphere. The concentrations of formaldehyde (HCHO) were measured using IBBCEAS to investigate the sources of this hydrocarbon in Bountiful, Utah during 2019. Another important species is OH radical. It is one of the most predominant oxidizing species present in the atmosphere. It is found in low concentrations, 0.1 ppt. Detecting concentrations this low is challenging. A new IBBCEAS instrument has been designed and elements of this instrument were tested by measuring the OH overtones in a variety of short chained alcohols. A set of experiments were conducted to measure the absorption cross-sections for the 5th and 6th OH vibrational overtones in a series of short chained alcohols by IBBCEAS. Because OH radical's lowest energy electronic state occurs in the same wavelength region (i.e., 308 nm) that SO2 absorbs (300-310 nm), a study was conducted in which the concentrations of SO2 were measured using an IBBCEAS and compared with a commercially available SO2 monitor.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze the perception of elementary teachers and their practices when transitioning from small classes of 20 to larger classes of 28 or more students. The respondents were asked questions about how they have adjusted to the instruction of the curriculum, classroom management, monitoring of student achievement, and the level of support received from administration as a result of increased class sizes due to the elimination of California's Class Size Reduction program. The respondents were asked to compare what they did with a class size averaging 20 to their current class size which averaged 28.6 students. The results of the interviews varied, but overall, the teacher's workload, quality of instructional programs, student behavior, and the personal connection between the student and teacher seem to be the areas most affected by larger class sizes. An underlying issue consistently surfaced throughout the interviews. The demands set forth by the district and state, such as pacing and rigorous curricular programs, was an area of concern for the participants in this study. This study identified areas where teachers feel they need more support and training and where change is needed.

Monitoring is hugely important for musicians in any type of live situation for them to provide a good musical performance, and In-ear Monitoring (IEM) is increasingly popular among both musicians and audio engineers. Despite this, there has been little research on the topic and musicians and audio engineers would benefit from knowing more about the system, to utilize it in the best way possible. Because of the potentially added issues with structure borne sound, the study has chosen to focus on vocalists that use IEM. Through interviews with both Less experienced IEM users and Experienced IEM users, this study aims to find out what issues IEM users experience in live situations. Other than perceived issues, the study investigates how issues evolve with increased experience, comparing the two user groups, what solutions can be found and how an IEM mix should be for a vocalist. Through a Thematic analysis, the study reaches the conclusion that the main issue with the IEM system for vocalists is isolation from the surrounding world, and that the isolation leads to other perceived issues such as worsening the live feeling and obstructing contact with the audience. The study also concludes that there is a clear connection between monitoring and musical performance with poor monitoring leading to worse performance. The main solution observed is habit with the system, good communication between the audio engineers and musicians and an understanding for both sides workflow to increase efficiency in mixing. With this knowledge, further research can be made to increase the understanding for musicians and audio engineers respectively, and audio engineers and musicians can already focus on increasing cooperation.