Den här studien presenterar Batman och Jokern som meningsskapande tankefigurer hos en samhällelig publik inom rådande kultur. Protagonisten och antagonisten representerar språkliga uttryck och innebörder bortom rollerna som enbart hjälte och skurk. Studien uppenbarar en relation mellan fiktiva karaktärer och socialt handlande, där serieupplagan är bestående av mening för den samhälleliga publiken. Det är en kvalitativ undersökning utifrån tematisk analys med en ontologisk och epistemologisk argumentation för ett kritiskt realistiskt förhållningssätt. Jag har använt mig av tre serieupplagor i karaktärsanalysen av protagonisten och antagonisten. De teoretiker som till störst del framträder är Goffman och hans dramaturgiska terminologi, Webers resonemang om idealtypers funktioner samt Fiskes kommunikationsteori och dess förekommande genom populärkulturens maktdimension. Analysen har uppenbarat vad som är kärnan i differensen mellan hjälten och skurken och hur dessa kan förstås som meningsskapande, symboliska uttryck för samhällsvarelsen.

Den här studien presenterar Batman och Jokern som meningsskapande tankefigurer hos en samhällelig publik inom rådande kultur. Protagonisten och antagonisten representerar språkliga uttryck och innebörder bortom rollerna som enbart hjälte och skurk. Studien uppenbarar en relation mellan fiktiva karaktärer och socialt handlande, där serieupplagan är bestående av mening för den samhälleliga publiken. Det är en kvalitativ undersökning utifrån tematisk analys med en ontologisk och epistemologisk argumentation för ett kritiskt realistiskt förhållningssätt. Jag har använt mig av tre serieupplagor i karaktärsanalysen av protagonisten och antagonisten. De teoretiker som till störst del framträder är Goffman och hans dramaturgiska terminologi, Webers resonemang om idealtypers funktioner samt Fiskes kommunikationsteori och dess förekommande genom populärkulturens maktdimension. Analysen har uppenbarat vad som är kärnan i differensen mellan hjälten och skurken och hur dessa kan förstås som meningsskapande, symboliska uttryck för samhällsvarelsen.

I denna uppsats undersöks den visuella gestaltningen av Gotham City i regissören Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Trilogy med hjälp av en komparativ analysmetod. De berättelser som utspelat sig i Gotham och Batmans relation till staden har genom åren givit den en viss karaktär. Gotham har framförallt varit platsen där brott begås och Batman bekämpar dem. Dessa karaktärsdrag har i ett antal filmer gestaltats av en mängd olika personer inom i stort sätt alla visuella medier som existerar, alla med sin egen vision av hur staden ser ut. I tidiga filmtolkningar så var gestaltningen av staden återhållsam medan den i senare gestaltats som en dystopisk mardröm. När Nolan tog sig an Batmans värld valde han istället att förankra sin vision i realismen. Men när trilogin ses i sin helhet blir det tydligt att gestaltningen av staden skiljer sig åt mellan filmerna och att varje film visar upp en ny sida av den. Med en syn på Nolans konstnärskap som grundar sig i auteurteorin men med urban studies som huvudsakliga teoretiska perspektiv undersöks i denna uppsats hur gestaltningarna av staden skiljer sig åt mellan filmerna, hur dessa skillnader påverkar vår uppfattning av staden och filmernas narrativ samt i vilket utsträckning gestaltningarna är ett resultat av Nolans vision.

There are approximately 4000 railway bridges in Sweden managed by the Swedish Administration of Transport (Trafikverket), of which a common construction type is the reinforced concrete (RC) trough bridge, which is a structure that consists of a slab carried by two longitudinal main beams which transfer loads towards the supports. A substantial amount of the RC trough bridge population is approaching the end of their service lives which consequently implies that the replacement of some of these bridges can be expected in the near future. Extending their service lives can yield positive effects from a financial- as well as an environmental perspective, and therefore it is highly beneficial to evaluate their capacities as realistically as possible. One factor that may help improve accuracy during the determination of their capacities is an evaluation of how it is affected by the location of the railway track on the bridge.  In current design codes defined by Trafikverket, consideration is taken to horizontal track displacement for a minimum displacement of 0.1 m if there doesn’t exist data suggesting that a larger displacement is prevalent on the bridge. However, Trafikverket has received data which suggest that a considerable number of bridges could experience load eccentricities which exceed the standard minimum value. This raises the question whether or not 0.1m is the most optimal limit value for load eccentricity on railway bridges. For RC trough bridges, a larger load eccentricity may result in one main beam carrying a larger portion of the load which will decrease the axle load which the bridge can carry. It is therefore important to evaluate the influence of larger horizontal displacements than what is currently is considered as a preventive action.   In addition, several studies on Swedish concrete bridges constructed during the 20th century have pointed to a significant increase in concrete compressive- and tensile strength over time. This suggests that it is possible that a considerable amount of RC trough bridges have a higher capacity than what was originally intended, and further research is required in order to understand the behaviour of these bridges when key material parameters are altered.        There are three main tasks which this master thesis seeks to complete. The first part is a detailed analysis of a database named BaTMan (Bridge and Tunnel Management) that belongs to Trafikverket. In this analysis parameters such as span length, age, material type and damages for every identified railway bridge is extracted and further processed in Microsoft Excel in order to gain a clear overview of the RC trough bridge population. The second task regards the development of a non-linear finite element model of a typical RC trough bridge named Lautajokki. The model is analysed using ATENA Science and its behaviour is verified against test results obtained during a full-scale test of the bridge performed by Paulsson et al. (1996). The last task is to use the devolved model to perform a parametric study where the effects of changes in load eccentricity, compressive strength as well as tensile strength is studied.

Comic book superheroes have become adopted into American popular culture, and yet few have considered why these characters resonate with Americans. The first comic book superhero premiered in 1938 when Superman appeared on the cover of the first issue of Action Comics. For almost seventy years his adventures and the adventures of other costumed heroes have been continually published. Batman soon joined Superman as a popular costumed crime-fighter, and the early 1960s saw another generation of superheroes created that would be embraced in American culture. Among this new group of heroes were Spider-Man and the X-Men, who have proved as popular as Superman and Batman. The never-ending narratives of comic book characters provide a unique opportunity to analyze how superheroes have evolved across the decades to remain relevant for new generations of Americans. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men are the most popular heroes, not only in comic books, but in other media adaptations. An exploration of why these specific characters have such resonance with Americans will provide insights into American mindsets, ideologies, and philosophies. Furthermore, comic books are uniquely positioned to allow a new historicist reading, as the characters' adventures have been published on a monthly schedule for decades. A consideration of the alterations made in the narratives to reflect the time periods is inherently enlightening.

This Master’s thesis in Media, Aesthetics, and Narration can be viewed as a pilot study which examines the intricacies of worldbuilding in dystopian settings, emphasizing the impact of different starting points—micro and macro perspectives—on the creation process. Given the vast scope of worldbuilding, the thesis narrows its focus to these two approaches: the micro perspective, which delves into detailed elements like character and setting specifics, and the macro perspective, which considers broader societal structures and overarching narratives. To evaluate these approaches, a visual model was developed and tested by a narrative student and a senior UX designer, and applied to two distinct dystopian video game settings. Through analysis and evaluation, the thesis aims to provide insights into the worldbuilding process, fostering understanding and discussion about micro and macro approaches in dystopian fiction and contributing to ongoing research in narratology and world crafting.

Thesis (M.A. (English))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2016. / This dissertation examines how particular combinations of image and text in sequential art reflect specific social, historical and political contexts. The analysis of how meaning is constructed is done through consideration of three iterations of the Batman superhero character, and argues for an eventual postmodernisation of the character. The first case study presented is the original version of Batman as it debuted in 1939, which naturally established much of the substance from which later depictions would take their cues. The second case study used is the “camp” 1960s TV series starring Adam West, which was influenced by the highly restricted Batman comics under the Comics Code Authority established in 1954. The main case study, and the central focus of this dissertation, is Batman – Arkham Asylum (1989), a graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean, the latest of the three iterations, which represents the eventual disruption of the enforced or constructed harmony evident in the earlier versions of the character into a fracturing and fragmentation both of the world and the self. It is a version of Batman that privileges the interiority and psychological complexity of the character, representing a culmination of the 1980s shift toward a more mature audience with its incorporation of horror, violence and mental turmoil. These three examples are compared and contrasted, showing how each constructs a particular meaning using its own unique combination of image and text. Having established a historicity for the character and having constructed an argument for how Batman as a cultural icon echoes shifts in society, the focus of the dissertation is transferred to a deeper analysis of Arkham and attempts to trace more explicitly its status as a postmodern text by examining its fragmentary nature, its use of intertextuality and how meaning in Arkham is constructed in the mind. Following this, an exploration of the central theme of madness in the graphic novel is provided in order to show how the work both critiques the representation of madness in fiction as well as how the liminal setting of the asylum functions as part of the postmodernisation of Batman by creating a “landscape of madness” where irrationality and the uncanny dominate reality, in contrast to the logical, “left-brain” treatment of Batman which had become common prior to Arkham Asylum. The analysis of the three iterations is shaped by WTJ Mitchell’s theories on imagetext relationships and additionally by the principles of sequential art outlined by Scott McCloud. The postmodern theoretical framework is informed by John Docker’s explorations of fragmentation, intertextuality, inversion and the Carnivalesque. Additionally, the writings of Lillian Feder and Michel Foucault will inform the discussion of madness in Arkham. / GR2017

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-120).

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 144 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Wireless Mesh Networks provide an organisation or a community with the means to extend or create a network independent of infrastructure. However, the network’s dynamic topology along with the fact that devices in the network might be mobile and move randomly, brings tolight various kind of problems on the network, with the most common being the routing. In this report, the problem of routing is examined in terms of throughput, routing overhead, end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio on two chosen algorithms, namely the Dynamic MANET On-demand (DYMO) and the Better Approach To Mobile Adhoc Networking (B.A.T.M.A.N.). Furthermore, this thesis examines also a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection and compares it against several TCP congestion control mechanisms, two of which, were implemented, namely TCP-Illinois and TCP-FIT, to address the effects that different TCP congestion mechanisms have on an ad-hoc network, when reliable connections are needed. The results show that DYMO is more stable, performs good overall and has the lowest routing overhead, however in a situation with limited mobility or no mobility (as in high mobility they perform poorly) proactive protocols like B.A.T.M.A.N. are worthy protocols, should the extra penalty of routing overhead in the network traffic is not causing any problems. Furthermore, regarding the TCP results, it was observed that TCP congestion algorithms designed specifically for Wireless networks, do offer better performance and should be considered, when designing an ad-hoc network.