The study investigates the constructed relationship between gender, language, and power in a type of conventional, informal discussion, commonly referred to as adda in Bengal. This research focuses on everyday contestations of authority and some ways that are differently framed by men and women, and as well as some implications of these strategies as they negotiate and position themselves within the setting of adda in Austin, Texas, a place away from Bengal. The corpus consists of a segment of recorded data within mixed-group interaction, including both men and women, among native Bengalis who are currently from Texas as well as from Bengal. I use conversation analysis as a methodology to analyze the sequential production of meaning, and study how participant roles emerge and are negotiated through the lens of an adda setting. The study investigates the transformation of a discussion between men and women into a format of debate, which is common in adda, and the strategies employed by the participants to seize the floor. The strategies analyzed include: collaboration between women to disagree with the male participants’ positions and vice-versa. Questioning as a practice can be a very powerful device within the situated space, as it demands a response from the recipient. The study builds on the recent scholarship on the multifunctional use of tag questions and contributes by adding a new perspective on how the tag-questions are employed by women as an interactional strategy to become co-tellers in the discussion. From the very outset, the study focuses on the use of tag-questions and how they are implemented in an interactional framework (by either men or women). The broader aim of this report is to use tag-question as a primary data set because of their complexity. The act of questioning is a very complex activity as it involves the context and positioning of the speaker as well as the recipient and how they both act and react to the question. In the segment analyzed in the report, women use tag question to question the men’s authority claims, but the questions are interpreted by men as a re-framing to a teacher-student paradigm, and undermine the women’s position. The female participants also create interruptions to redirect and reformulate the topic, in order to become co-tellers in the discussion. In exploring these strategies, I examine both the embodied behavior and the speech styles of both men and women. / text

Ice particles in the atmosphere affect for example remote sensing measurements made for climate and atmospheric research. When these ice particles melt their single scattering properties alters, which in turn affect the remote sensing measurements. It is therefore of importance to understand how these scattering properties change due to the melting of the particles to be able to interpret the measurements.  The ARTS database contains single scattering data for a large set of ice particles in the microwave region, data which describes how electromagnetic radiation interacts with said particles. The database does not however contain any data for melting ice particles. A software package called RimeCraft has been used to simulate the melting process of ice particles, together with the discrete dipole approximation program ADDA, which simulated their single scattering properties at frequencies between 1 and 247.2 GHz. Neither of the two programs had been extensively tested on melting ice particles. This thesis therefore tests both RimeCraft and ADDA for their suitability and performance on melting ice particles as a preparation for extending the ARTS database with these types of particles.  The simulation results from ADDA showed that the single scattering properties, such as absorption and extinction cross sections, were greatly affected by the melting process, especially during the initial phase of melting (below meltfraction 0.1) where the increase was strong. At higher meltfractions the increase was slower, and sometimes even decreased for certain particles. Some unexpected results were seen, such as spikes and oscillations in the extinction and absorption cross sections.  Both RimeCraft and ADDA are suitable for generating models of melting ice particles, respectively to simulate their single scattering properties, as long as the output from ADDA undergoes quality controls first. / Ispartiklar i atmosfären påverkar fjärranalysmätningar gjorda för bland annat klimat- och atmosfärsforskning. När dessa ispartiklar smälter påverkar det deras spridningsegenskaper, vilket i sin tur påverkar fjärranalysmätningarna. Det är därför viktigt att förstå hur dessa spridningsegenskaper påverkas av att partikeln smälter för att kunna tolka mätningarna.  ARTS databasen innehåller spridningsdata för ett stort antal olika ispartiklar i mikrovågsområdet, data som beskriver hur elektromagnetisk strålning påverkas av dessa partiklar. Databasen innehåller dock inte någon data för smältande ispartiklar.   Ett mjukvarupaket kallat RimeCraft har använts för att simulera smältprocessen av ispartiklar, tillsammans med diskret dipolsapproximationsprogrammet ADDA som användes för att simulera deras spridningsegenskaper för frekvenser mellan 1 och 247.2 GHz. Inget av de två programmen har blivit utförligt testat med smältande ispartiklar. Detta examensarbete testar därför både RimeCrafts och ADDAs lämplighet och prestationsförmåga med smältande ispartiklar som en förberedelse för att utöka ARTS databasen med dessa partiklar.  Simulationsresultaten från ADDA visade att spridningsegenskaperna, så som absorptions- och extinktionstvärsnitt, påverkades starkt av smältprocessen, speciellt under den initiala fasen av smältningen. Vid högre smältgrader var ökningen långsammare och ibland till och med negativ för vissa partiklar. Några oväntade resultat sågs, som t.ex. spikar och oscillationer i extinktions- och absorptionstvärsnitten.  Både RimeCraft och ADDA är lämpade för att generera modeller av smältande ispartiklar, respektive för att simulera deras spridningsegenskaper, så länge utdatan från ADDA genomgår en kvalitetskontroll.

This thesis is a study of motherhood in Afhild Agrell’s play Räddad (first performed in 1882 at The Royal Theater in Stockholm) and Adda Ravnkilde posthumously published novel Judith Fürste (1884) with a focus on the relationship between mother and son. I study how the mothers wish to raise their sons, how mother and son interact with one another, the family dynamic’s influence on their motherhood and finally how they shape their identity as mothers when their motherhood is first threatened (often by their husbands) and then after the death of their sons. By analyzing two works by women authors of the Modern Breakthrough, I examine how motherhood is represented in literature from this period with a unique focus—mothers of sons. During this period, despite advancements in the rights of women including equal inheritance and increased access to education and professions such as teacher, doctor and dentist, many of the rights gained pertained to unmarried women—how an unmarried woman was to support herself was a central question. Literature from this period illustrates the struggles that woman faced upon marriage—often they had to give up their desire to work and focus on being wives and mothers instead. However, in the two works I have selected, the main female characters’ motherhood is threatened. Motherhood is a crucial part of both mothers’ identity and Agrell’s play and Ravnkilde’s novel follow the shaping of the main characters’ identity as mothers, the following threat to this identity and the crisis that arises after the death of their sons. I analyze this identity-arc and how being mothers to sons shapes and complicates this arc.

An investigation was carried out into light scattering by Gaussian rough ice crystals. Gaussian rough crystal geometries were generated using roughness parameters derived from mineral dust grains, which have been reported to be suitable proxies for rough ice crystals. Light scattering data for these geometries was computed using the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) method. Phase functions, 2D scattering patterns, degree of linear polarisation patterns and asymmetry parameters were computed for smooth, moderately rough and highly rough crystals with a variety of orientations and size parameters. A sodium fluorosilicate ice analogue crystal with three partially roughened prism facets was created using focused ion beam (FIB) milling and 2D scattering patterns were collected from it using the small ice detector (SID) 3 cloud probe. It was found that roughness reduces features in the phase function compared to scattering by smooth hexagonal prisms, particularly when the roughness features were horizontally much larger than the wavelength. However, the most effective roughness model also takes account of horizontal features whose size is closer to that of the wavelength. Horizontal features smaller than the wavelength have very little effect.

This thesis deals with the dark-field imaging and the optical spectroscopy of optically trapped plasmonic nanoparticles. The optical trapping and the characterization of a single particle or multiple nanoparticles as well are demonstrated. The number of the optically trapped particles can be estimated from the dark-field scattering intensity. Experiments show the presence of the interparticle coupling among trapped metallic nanoparticles which has not been observed in case of dielectric particles. The scattering spectra of the plasmonic nanoparticles were compared with theoretical models based on the Mie theory and the Discrete dipole approximation.