Sedan Internet förändrade hur världen kommunicerar har den teknologiska utvecklingen i dess kölvatten och i synnerhet de sociala medierna inneburit ett paradigmskifte i vår vardagliga kommunikativa verklighet. Även organisationer har hakat på utvecklingen. Men för många råder ovisshet om hur sociala medier påverkar deras verksamhet. I synnerhet våra svenska myndigheter som har att förhålla sig till offentlighetsprincip, yttrandefrihet och ett genomgående medborgarperspektiv. Mot denna bakgrund ville vi undersöka hur sociala medier påverkar arbetet med samhällskommunikation inom en kommunal förvaltning. Vi har därför gjort en kvalitativ studie av en kommunal förvaltning inom Kalmar kommun genom att intervjua de som arbetar med Facebook samt deras ledning. Våra huvudteorier är hämtade från Kent Asp, Jürgen Habermas och John B. Thompson. Vi har kommit fram till att Facebook är en samlingsplats för flera olika typer av interaktion med möjlighet till dialogisk masskommunikation genom nätverk. Medieinnehållet är ett konstant flöde av främst fatisk kommunikation men som för en myndighet öppnar för effektiv kriskommunikation. Informatörsrollen blir mer strategisk och medborgardialogen decentraliserad genom ökad kommunikation via Facebook. Sociala medier skapar ett nytt interaktionsfält som förstärker den borgerliga offentligheten och ökar möjligheten till deliberativ demokrati. På så sätt minskar tendensen för en mediekrati och ökar myndighetens makt över massmedierna. / Since Internet changed how the world communicates the technological development that followed and especially the social medias has meant a change of paradigms in our everyday communication. Even organizations have followed the trend, but for many there is an uncertainty about how social media affects their operations. Especially for our Swedish administrative authorities that have to act according to open records, freedom of speech and the citizen perspective. With this in mind we wanted to study how social medias affect the work with communication to society within a municipality. We therefore have made a qualitative study on Kalmar municipality by interviewing the ones who use Facebook as a work tool and their management. Our main theories are from Kent Asp, Jürgen Habermas and John B. Thompson. We have concluded that Facebook is a meeting place for several types of interaction with possibility to have dialogical mass communication through networks. The media content is a constant flow with mainly phatic communication that for an administrative authority opens up for effective crises communication. The public relations officers role becomes more strategic and the dialogue with the citizens becomes decentralized through increased communication through Facebook. Social medias create a new field of interaction that enhances the public sphere and increases the possibilities for a deliberative democracy. In that way the tendencies for a mediacracy decrease and the administrative authorities power over media increase.

The Swedish election year of 2010 has just begun and the political actors are mobilizing their communication efforts to win the votes of the public. The political campaigns of 2010 have the potential to be the first where a new channel for political communication has the potential to make a difference – the social media. This paper aims to describe in what ways a Member of Parliament, Nina Larsson (FP), together with the PR-agency Hello Clarice are using social media to conduct political campaigning on the web. It also aims to study if the professional consultants of Hello Clarice have any influence over Nina Larsson’s political communication. The theoretical framework which is the base for this study are theories of an extended public sphere in the age of mediation. The information age has created new forms of interaction between humans over geographical distance which also is a key starting-point in Manuel Castells theories of the network society. This theory is therefore a theoretical foundation of this paper. The paper also uses theories of political communication and the idea of the professionalization of political communication. The research was conducted with a netnographic approach with observational studies of Nina Larsson’s two blogs and her activities on the social network Twitter. As a compliment to the observational studies research has also been conducted trough qualitative interviews with both Nina Larsson and representatives from the PR-agency Hello Clarice. The results show that Nina Larsson’s political communication has to a degree been affected by the professional consultants of Hello Clarice. The paper has also shown an indication of the potential of social media in use of strategic political communication, in which different channels serve with different purposes. Our research has also shown that in this specific case social media can decrease the communicative distance between politician and citizen. / Valåret 2010 har precis tagit sin början och de politiska aktörerna mobiliserar sina kommunikationsinsatser för att på bästa sätt kunna vinna väljarnas förtroende och i slutändan röster. Årets valrörelse kan också bli den första där en ny kanal för politisk kommunikation är av betydelse – de sociala medierna. Denna uppsats syftar till att beskriva på vilka sätt en riksdagsledamot, Nina Larsson (FP), tillsammans med en kommunikationsbyrå, Hello Clarice, arbetar för att bedriva politiskt kampanjarbete i de sociala medierna. Uppsatsens mål är också att undersöka om kommunikationsbyrån påverkar de politiska budskap som Nina Larsson kommunicerar i de sociala medierna.  För att skapa förståelse för det som studeras baserar sig studien på ett övergripande plan i olika teoretiska synsätt om utvidgningen av det offentliga rummet som skett i samband med medieutvecklingen. Informationssamhällets utbredning har skapat nya förutsättningar för interaktion mellan människor i ett geografiskt avstånd. Manuel Castells teorier om nätverkssamhällets framväxt, i vilket dessa interaktiva aktiviteter sker, är därför också en övergripande teoretisk utgångspunkt för studien. För att skapa förståelse för de aktiviteter som studeras grundar sig studien också i teorier om politisk kommunikation och tankesätt om professionaliseringen av den politiska kommunikationen. En netnografisk ansats har använts för att bedriva observationsstudier av Nina Larssons två bloggar och av hennes konto på mikrobloggen Twitter. Studien har också kompletterats genom kvalitativa intervjuer med Nina Larsson och med representanter från kommunikationsbyrån Hello Clarice.  Studiens resultat visar att Nina Larssons politiska budskap delvis har påverkats av kommunikationsbyrån Hello Clarice. Studien visar också de sociala mediernas potential för att bedriva strategisk politisk kommunikation där de olika kanalerna som Nina Larsson kontrollerar tjänar olika syften. Syften som sammantaget ska stärka de politiska mål som Nina Larsson har. Våra observationer av Nina Larssons kanaler visar också att de sociala medierna kan fungera som ett verktyg för att minska det kommunikativa avståndet mellan medborgare och folkvald, vilket i detta specifika fall visat sig genom att Nina Larsson visat en vilja till dubbelriktad kommunikation.

Mainly focusing on the big picture regarding the research concerning the religious sphere in Bronze Age Scandinavia, the research field has been missing out on the smaller picture. The results have a tendency to produce a picture where the big landscape monuments, social structures and cosmology appear in the foreground. This essay is a comment to this phenomena and a methodological and terminological discussion regarding the way in which we as archaeologist’s works with questions about religion and rites. The main task though is to make an attempt in trying to identify the ritual performers and to answer the question whether it's possible or not to do that. This kind of work needs empirical studies with a theoretical background. The grave material can be the key to find these individuals since it's a context where the person’s belongings can be connected with the individual. The theoretical stance is that the Bronze Age research has been unable to identify these performers and that this in factcan be done. The etuis of belongings discovered for the first time in 1845 with the archaeological excavation of the Hvidegaard grave outside Copenhagen in Denmark, containing objects referred to as magical objects, can be one way to make these actors of rites come alive.The etuis of belongings and other grave material are presented in this work and a discussion about the graves material is made. The approach to study the bigger picture by studying the small empirical material is also made in this essay where a model of the ritual sphere is presented in the results with an attempt to show a none official cult existing side by side and in interaction with the official one.

Nuclear fuel comes in many forms; oxide fuel is the most commonly used in current reactor systems while metal fuel is a promising fuel type for future reactors due to neutronic performance and increased thermal conductivity. As a key heat transfer parameter, thermal conductivity describes the heat transport properties of a material based upon the density, specific heat, and thermal diffusivity. A material’s ability to transport thermal energy through its structure is a measurable property known as thermal diffusivity; the units for thermal diffusivity are given in area per unit time (e.g., m2/s). Current measurement methods for thermal diffusivity include LASER (or light) Flash Analysis and the hot-wire method. This study examines an approach that combines these previous two methods to characterize the diffusivity of a packed bed of microspheres of depleted uranium (DU) metal, which have a nominal diameter of 250 micrometers. The new apparatus is designated as the Crucible Heater Test Assembly (CHTA), and it induces a radial transient across a packed sample of microspheres then monitors the temperature profile using an array of thermocouples located at different distances from the source of the thermal transient. From the thermocouple data and an accurate time log, the thermal diffusivity of the sample may be calculated. Results indicate that DU microspheres have very low thermal conductivity, relative to solid uranium metal, and rapidly form an oxidation layer. At 500°C, the thermal conductivity of the DU microspheres was 0.431 ± 13% W/m-K compared to approximately 32 W/m-K for solid uranium metal. Characterization of the developed apparatus revealed a method that may be useful for measuring the thermal diffusivity of powders and liquids.

The arguments concerning the trade unionism and working class movement in Turkey as well as the largest confederation, T&uuml / rk-iS, in relation to the involvement in the political arena is debated in this thesis by underlining the lack of class identity among the workers. The main argument is that T&uuml / rk-iS was not established by the will and efforts of the workers. Another major discussion point of the thesis is the nonpartisanship policy of T&uuml / rk-iS. It has been found that T&uuml / rk-iS participated quite actively in the political sphere until the 1980 military intervention. However, the limits of this participation were widely drawn by the major political parties of the country. The thesis defends that there are problems stemming from the lack of class consciousness among the T&uuml / rk-iS workers, the hierarchal structure of T&uuml / rk-iS and the profit oriented approaches of the political parties towards T&uuml / rk-iS.

A macro-homogeneous, nonisothermal, two-phase, and steady state mathematical model is developed to investigate water and thermal management in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. An original two-phase energy balance approach is used to catch the thermal transport phenomena in cases when there is a signicant temperature dierence between the fuel cell temperature and the reactants inlet temperatures like during cold start-up. Model considers in depth electrode kinetics for both anode and cathode reactions. External and internal mass transfer resistances on fuel cell performance are accounted by means of a thin-film and agglomerate approach. Developed model accounts for all substantial transport phenomena including diffusion of multi-component gas mixtures in the porous media, electrochemical reactions in the catalytic regions, water and proton transport through the solid polymer electrolyte, transport of electrons within the solid matrix, heat transport in the gas and solid phases, phase change and transport of water through porous diffusion media and catalyst layers. In this study, it is truly shown how significant heat and water transport are to overall fuel cell performance. Model predictions are validated by comparison with experimental data, involving polarization curves, saturation and temperature gradients. For optimal electrode kinetics purposes, an alternative novel hollow core mesoporous shell (HCMS) carbon supported Pt and Pt-Pd electrocatalysts were synthesized by microwave irradiation. HCMS carbon spheres were produced by two different carbon precursors with the template replication of solid core mesoporous shell (SCMS) silica spheres. Compared to Pt/VX and ETEK electrocatalysts, HCMS carbon based Pt and Pt-Pd electrocatalysts showed promising cathode and anode electrodics performance in the fuel cell environment.

This thesis problematizes to relationship between gender based poverty and exclusion and urban space. Five forms of oppression, namely exploitation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, violence, marginalization, faced by women in highly patriarchal urban setting are examined to identify the spatial dynamics of each forms of oppression. A field research was carried out in one of the poor neighborhood of Ankara / nearby Siteler where male dominated furniture production is carried out. Through the in-depth interviews, women&rsquo / s perception and experience of spatializedoppression is documented and used to develop the arguments put forward in the theoretical section.

In this thesis, we consider the problem of designing space-time block codes that have low maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding complexity. We present a unified framework for determining the worst-case ML decoding complexity of space-time block codes. We use this framework to not only determine the worst-case ML decoding complexity of our own constructions, but also to show that some popular constructions of space-time block codes have lower ML decoding complexity than was previously known. Recognizing the practical importance of the two transmit and two receive antenna system, we propose the asymmetric golden code, which is designed specifically for low ML decoding complexity. The asymmetric golden code has the lowest decoding complexity compared to previous constructions of space-time codes, regardless of whether the channel varies with time. We also propose the embedded orthogonal space-time codes, which is a family of codes for an arbitrary number of antennas, and for any rate up to half the number of antennas. The family of embedded orthogonal space-time codes is the first general framework for the construction of space-time codes with low-complexity decoding, not only for rate one, but for any rate up to half the number of transmit antennas. Simulation results for up to six transmit antennas show that the embedded orthogonal space-time codes are simultaneously lower in complexity and lower in error probability when compared to some of the most important constructions of space-time block codes with the same number of antennas and the same rate larger than one. Having considered the design of space-time block codes with low ML decoding complexity on the transmitter side, we also develop efficient algorithms for ML decoding for the golden code, the asymmetric golden code and the embedded orthogonal space-time block codes on the receiver side. Simulations of the bit-error rate performance and decoding complexity of the asymmetric golden code and embedded orthogonal codes are used to demonstrate their attractive performance-complexity tradeoff.

The problem of bluff body flows and the drag associated with them has been the subject of numerous investigations in the literature. In the two-dimensional case, the flow past a circular cylinder has been most widely studied both experimentally and computationally. As a result, a well documented understanding of the gross features of the near-wake around a circular cylinder exists in the literature. In contrast, very little is understood on the general features of three-dimensional bluff body near-wakes, except that the vortex shedding is known to be less intense. Control or management of bluff body flows, both from the point of view of drag reduction as well as suppressing unsteady forces caused by vortex shedding, has been an area of considerable interest in engineering applications. The basic aim in the different control methods involves direct or indirect manipulation (or modification) of the near-wake structure leading to weakening or inhibition of vortex shedding. Many passive and energetic techniques (such as splitter plates, base and trailing edge modifications and base bleed) have been effective in the two-dimensional case in increasing the base pressure, leading to varying amounts of drag reduction; a large body of this work is centered around circular cylinders because of direct relevance in applications. The present work is an attempt to understand some of the major aspects of the near-wake structure of a sphere and to control the same for drag reduction employing a passive technique. Many of the passive control techniques found useful in two-dimensional flows are not appropriate in the context of a sphere. In this thesis, the effects of natural ventilation on the wake and drag of a sphere at low speeds have been studied experimentally in some detail. Natural bleed into the base is created when the stagnation and base regions of a sphere are connected through an internal duct. Although natural ventilation has features broadly similar to the well known base-bleed technique (both involve addition of mass, momentum and energy into the near-wake), there are many significant differences between the two methods; for example, in base bleed, the mass flow injected can be controlled independent of the outer flow, whereas in natural ventilation, it is determined by an interaction between the internal and the external flow around the body. Experiments have been conducted in both wind and water tunnels, which covered a wide range of Reynolds number (ReDj based on the diameter of the sphere) from of 1.7 x 103 to 8.5 x 105 with natural boundary layer transition. The ratio of the frontal vent area to the maximum cross sectional area of the sphere was varied from 1% to 2.25% and the effect of the internal duct geometry, including a convergent and a divergent duct was examined as well. After preliminary force measurements involving different duct geometries and vent areas, it was decided to make detailed measurements with a straight (parallel) duct with a vent area ratio of 2.25%. Extensive flow visualization studies involving dye-flow, hydrogen bubble, surface oil-flow and laser-light-sheet techniques were employed to gain insight into many aspects of the near-wake structure and the flow on the surface of the sphere. Measurements made included model static pressures, drag force using a strain gauge balance and velocity profiles in the near-wake and internal flow through the vent. In addition, wake vortex shedding frequency was measured using a hotwire. In the subcritical range of Reynolds numbers (ReD< 2 x 105), the near-wake of the sphere (without ventilation) was found to be vortex shedding, with laminar separation occurring around a value of0s = 80° (where 0s is the angle between the stagnation point and separation location). In contrast, there was little evidence of vortex shedding in the supercritical range (ReD> 4 x 105), consistent with many earlier observations in the literature; however, flow visualization studies in the near-wake clearly showed the existence of a three-dimensional vortex-like structure exhibiting random rotations about the streamwise axis. In this range of Reynolds numbers, surface flow visualization studies indicated the existence of a laminar separation bubble which was followed by a transitional/turbulent reattachment and an ultimate separation around 0S = 145°. All the above observations are broadly consistent with the results available in the literature. With ventilation at subcritical Reynolds numbers, the pressure distributions on the sphere including in the base region was only weakly altered, resulting in a marginal reduction in the total drag; because of the higher pressure difference between the stagnation and base regions, the mean velocity in the vent-flow was about 0.9 times the free-stream velocity. As may be expected, there was little change in the location of laminar separation on the sphere and the vortex shedding frequency was virtually unaltered due to ventilation. The relatively small effects on pressure distribution and drag suggest weak interaction between the vent-flow and the separated shear layer in the subcritical regime. The time-averaged near-wake flow revealed a stagnation point occurring between the vent-flow and the reverse flow in the near-wake, along with the formation of a torroidal vortex between the stagnation point and the near-wake closure; these features bear some resemblance to those observed with base bleed from a blunt base. With ventilation in the supercritical range of Reynolds numbers (ReD > 4 x 105), significant reduction in the total drag, of as much as 65%, was observed from force measurements. Pressure distributions showed higher pressures in the separated flow zone (consistent with reduced drag) as a result of which the internal mass and the mean velocity of the vent-flow were lower (0.69 times the free-stream velocity) compared to the value in the subcritical flow regime. Flow visualization studies clearly showed that the three-dimensional rotating structure (associated with the wake of the unvented sphere) was significantly modified by ventilation, leading to more symmetric and steady near-wake features. The larger effects on pressure distribution and drag suggest strong interaction between the vent-flow and the separated shear layer, promoted by their close proximity. The comparison of power spectral density of u1 signals in the near-wake showed significant reduction in the amplitude at all frequencies, consistent with observations from flow visualization studies. The time-averaged near-wake flow features a pair of counterrotating ring vortices which are trapped between the outer separated shear layer and the vent-flow shear layer; such a mean flow pattern is qualitatively similar to that behind an axisymmetric base with a central jet with unequal freestream velocities in the jet and outer flow. This study strongly suggests that natural ventilation can provide significant total drag reduction provided the vent-flow is in close proximity of the separated shear layer promoting a strong interaction between them. Drag reduction is associated with more symmetric and relatively steady near-wake features in contrast with the unvented sphere.

Abstract In the 1980s the cinematic nuclear family flourished again after the self-explorative 1960s and turbulent 1970s. This thesis explores the portrayal of the idealized American family in film between the 1950s and 1980s. The 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause reflects the 1950s cinematic family model. My investigation includes the role of the father figure and the bonds in intergenerational relationships. During the early 1980s, films such Ordinary People and ET: The Extraterrestrial reflect the need to reevaluate the 1950s ideal nuclear family. My examination of these films continues to include the importance of the father figure and bonds between child and parents along with contemporary elements such as the use of psychiatry and rise of single-parent households. These movies' redefined portrayals of the idealized nuclear family represent the shifting dynamics of modern society in terms of single-parent households and highlighted importance of intergenerational relationships.