As a structural designer, you are sometimes required to design structures carrying traffic loads, but which are not, for example, bridges or parking garages. In practice, this usually applies to drivable floor layers and culverts under roads. When designing structures such as bridges and parking garages, there are clear standards and regulations to follow. These types of guidelines are not as comprehensive when it comes specifically to dimensioning traffic-load-bearing constructions in connection with building construction. Frequently, an evenly distributed load of 20 kN/m2 is used. The purpose of this work is to investigate which regulations house construction designers should relate to when designing structures that carry traffic loads which are not bridges or parking garages. The work also includes an investigation of how suitable different calculation methods are for different types of load cases. The goal is to make recommendations that can streamline the work for construction designers. The material for this work has been obtained through three different methods. In order to gain an understanding of the subject and the current state of knowledge in the field, a literature study has been made. The main part of the work has included qualitative interviews with people who have good experience and knowledge in the field, as well as practical modeling and calculation of load cases. The focus has been on investigating which transverse forces occur for some specific load cases. The study also includes the effect of the fill layer’s thickness on the load spread. For larger floor spans, it is confirmed that an evenly distributed load of 20 kN/m2 is a bit heaped. To dimension after this covers most of the load cases that may occur on a floor layer or similar construction. In some cases, this value could be halved without problem. It also turns out that the shorter the span of the floor, the more the evenly distributed load differs between the different fill layer thicknesses. / Som husbyggnadskonstruktör får man ibland dimensionera konstruktioner som bär trafiklast, men som inte är exempelvis broar eller parkeringsgarage. I praktiken gäller det oftast körbara gårdsbjälklag och kulvertar under vägar. Gårdsbjälklag är ett något diffust begrepp. Vanligen innebär ett gårdsbjälklag ett bjälklag som skiljer insidan av en byggnad från någon typ av innergård. Normalt byggs dessa konstruktioner ovanpå parkeringsgarage eller källarvåningar. Ofta bär gårdsbjälklaget på de massor av material som planteringar, gräsmattor, vägar och gångar innebär. Gårdsbjälklag bär alltså i praktiken ofta på ett tätskikt, isoleringslager, samt diverse överbyggnader. Överbyggnaden kan bestå av jord, stenmaterial eller liknande massor. Dessa gårdsbjälklag kan även vara föremål för trafiklaster. Vanligtvis handlar det om uppställningsplatser för utryckningsfordon, men det finns också gårdsbjälklag där fraktfordon, servicefordon eller personbilar kan köra. Ofta trafikeras gårdsbjälklag även av fordon under byggskedet. Det kan exempelvis vara grävmaskiner, traktorer, lastbilar eller mobila kranar. Vid dimensionering av konstruktioner som broar och parkeringsgarage finns tydliga normer och regelverk att följa. Dessa typer av riktlinjer är inte lika omfattande när det specifikt gäller dimensionering av trafikbelastade konstruktioner i samband med husbyggnad. Ofta används en vedertagen utbredd last på 20 kN/m2. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka vilka regelverk husbyggnadskonstruktörer ska förhålla sig till vid dimensionering av konstruktioner som bär trafiklast men som inte är broar eller parkeringsgarage. Arbetet innefattar även en granskning av hur lämpliga olika beräkningsmetoder är för olika typer av lastfall. Målet är att ta fram rekommendationer som kan effektivisera arbetet för konstruktörer inom husbyggnad. Materialet för detta arbete har inhämtats genom tre skilda metoder. För att få en förståelse för ämnet och det aktuella kunskapsläget inom området har en litteraturstudie gjorts. Huvuddelen av arbetet har innefattat dels kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som har god erfarenhet och kunskap inom området, dels praktisk modellering och beräkning av lastfall. Fokus har legat på att undersöka vilka tvärkrafter som uppstår för några specifika lastfall. Undersökningen innefattar även vilken inverkan överbyggnader av olika tjocklek har på lastspridningen. De beräkningsprogram som har använts under arbetet är i synnerhet Strusoft FEM-Design. Även Strusoft Frame Analysis och PTC Mathcad Prime har nyttjats. Vid intervjuer med erfarna husbyggnadskonstruktörer framgick bland annat att dimensioneringsprocessen i de flesta fall är relativt simpel, men att vissa svårigheter kan uppstå, samt att en effektivisering av dimensioneringsprocessen för gårdsbjälklag är möjlig. Båda respondenterna nämnde att många konstruktioner troligen överdimensioneras till följd av användandet av gamla riktlinjer. Hur pass erfaren konstruktören är kan också spela in. Vidare kan det vid beräkning av laster på gårdsbjälklag vara både fördelaktigt och nödvändigt att räkna på lastspridningen i överbyggnadsmaterialet. En utförligare undersökning kring vilka laster man som konstruktör faktiskt bör räkna med för olika lastfall skulle därmed vara av intresse. Enligt en respondent saknas även en tydlig gränsdragning för i vilka fall EKS respektive specifika laster bör användas vid dimensionering. Resultatet från beräkningarna visar att stora utbredda laster uppkommer när spännvidderna blir mindre. Detta blir viktigt att beakta vid dimensionering av exempelvis kulvertar, där punktlasterna för de specifika lastfallen måste tas hänsyn till, givet att överbyggnaden inte är väldigt tilltagen. För större bjälklag bekräftas att en dimensionerande, jämnt utbredd last på 20 kN/m2 är väl tilltagen. Att dimensionera efter detta täcker de absolut flesta lastfallen som kan tänkas förekomma på ett gårdsbjälklag eller liknande konstruktion. I en del fall skulle detta värde kunna halveras utan att problem skulle uppstå. Det visar sig även att ju kortare bjälklagets spännvidd är, desto mer skiljer sig den motsvarande utbredda lasten mellan de olika överbyggnadstjocklekarna.

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This study aims to contribute to the under-researched area of LGBTQI activism in the ‘Global South’ by performing a case study of LGBTQI activism in India, a country that provides an intriguing setting in which a wide range of sexual expressions has developed over time with attitudes towards them varying alongside. Same-sex activities have since the 1860s been considered a penal offence under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code but in September 2018, the Indian Supreme Court overruled the law and decriminalized same-sex conduct. Within this context, frame analysis has been applied to six petitions by LGBTQI activists, filed to the Indian Supreme Court between 2016 and 2018, to unveil how Section 377 was framed by these activists. Results from the study show that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was framed as intrinsically discriminatory, being violative of constitutional as well as human rights, together with an emphasis on how the law relegates the LGBTQI community to second-class citizenship. Within the dominant framing of the law as discriminatory, the activists engaged in highlighting the imposition of Victorian morals by the British as the origin of the issue, along with factors that have enabled the perseverance of the issue, including the phrasing of the law and court failure to adapt to societal and international change. The subsequent consequences of the law were portrayed as stigmatization and personal losses for members of the LGBTQI community, as well as a negative impact on the state economy. By emphasising such aspects of the law, the activists advocated for the Indian Supreme Court to the overrule Section 377.

Frames são dispositivos cognitivos que organizam os sentidos da vida cotidiana. Enquadrar um risco ambiental é fazer mais saliente algumas de suas possibilidades, promovendo uma ou outra interpretação. A dissertação examina como a pauta dos transgênicos foi enquadrada pelos portais Estadão Digital <estadao.com.br> e Folha de S. Paulo <folha.uol.com.br> no período de 1998 a 2015. Para tanto, mediante a análise dos elementos textuais dos artigos (metáforas, escolhas de palavras e argumentos), 1.396 notícias foram classificadas em um dos seguintes frames de notícia: progresso, prospecto econômico, ética, caixa de Pandora, descontrole, natureza, responsabilidade pública e globalização. Os achados revelam que o frame predominante foi \"responsabilidade pública\", especialmente durante o biênio 2003/04 que antecedeu a sanção da \"Lei da Biossegurança\" em 2005. Mas antes de comunicar informações plurais, equilibradas, relacionando antecedentes e pressupostos, avaliando implicações e examinando alternativas e critérios de comparação, a mídia paulista tratou muito mais dos aspectos associados às polêmicas e conflitos políticos nacionais / Frames are cognitive devices that organize the meanings of everyday life. To frame a certain risk is to do more prominent some of its possibilities, promoting one or another interpretation. The research examines how the agenda of transgenic organisms has been framed by the Brazilian online newspapers Estadão Digital <estadao.com.br> and Folha de S. Paulo <folha.uol.com.br> from 1998 to 2015. To do so, an analysis of the internal textual elements (metaphors, selection of words and arguments) presented in the articles was done, resulting in 1.396 classified news according to one of the following news frames: progress, economic prospect, ethics, Pandora\'s box, runaway technology, nature/nurture, public accountability and globalization. The findings suggest that \"public accountability\" was the most frequently frame, especially during the years 2003/04, which preceded the sanction of the \"Biosafety Law\", in March 2005. Thus, despite communicating plural and balanced information, relating antecedent and assumptions, evaluating and examining alternatives criteria, the state of São Paulo\'s press has been dealing much more with the controversies and political conflict aspects of the subject

Frames são dispositivos cognitivos que organizam os sentidos da vida cotidiana. Enquadrar um risco ambiental é fazer mais saliente algumas de suas possibilidades, promovendo uma ou outra interpretação. A dissertação examina como a pauta dos transgênicos foi enquadrada pelos portais Estadão Digital <estadao.com.br> e Folha de S. Paulo <folha.uol.com.br> no período de 1998 a 2015. Para tanto, mediante a análise dos elementos textuais dos artigos (metáforas, escolhas de palavras e argumentos), 1.396 notícias foram classificadas em um dos seguintes frames de notícia: progresso, prospecto econômico, ética, caixa de Pandora, descontrole, natureza, responsabilidade pública e globalização. Os achados revelam que o frame predominante foi \"responsabilidade pública\", especialmente durante o biênio 2003/04 que antecedeu a sanção da \"Lei da Biossegurança\" em 2005. Mas antes de comunicar informações plurais, equilibradas, relacionando antecedentes e pressupostos, avaliando implicações e examinando alternativas e critérios de comparação, a mídia paulista tratou muito mais dos aspectos associados às polêmicas e conflitos políticos nacionais / Frames are cognitive devices that organize the meanings of everyday life. To frame a certain risk is to do more prominent some of its possibilities, promoting one or another interpretation. The research examines how the agenda of transgenic organisms has been framed by the Brazilian online newspapers Estadão Digital <estadao.com.br> and Folha de S. Paulo <folha.uol.com.br> from 1998 to 2015. To do so, an analysis of the internal textual elements (metaphors, selection of words and arguments) presented in the articles was done, resulting in 1.396 classified news according to one of the following news frames: progress, economic prospect, ethics, Pandora\'s box, runaway technology, nature/nurture, public accountability and globalization. The findings suggest that \"public accountability\" was the most frequently frame, especially during the years 2003/04, which preceded the sanction of the \"Biosafety Law\", in March 2005. Thus, despite communicating plural and balanced information, relating antecedent and assumptions, evaluating and examining alternatives criteria, the state of São Paulo\'s press has been dealing much more with the controversies and political conflict aspects of the subject

This paper concerns the framing of climate change in Svenska Dagbladet, during the period of January 1st to November 30th, 2018. Climate change has been described as the challenge of our time, perhaps even the biggest to ever face humanity. Though Sweden has, for a long time, expressed a general consensus regarding the existence and gravity of climate change the importance of how the question is handled remains. Media plays a crucial role in defining and explaining the issue, including causal interpretations and what ought to be done. The outset of the current study was to explore how one of Sweden’s leading newspapers constructs and represents this issue of climate change. Through a method of framing analysis, using Nisbet’s framing typology, the study examined 69 articles in Svenska Dagbladet within the chosen time frame. Two research questions guided the study: Q1 - Which are the primary frames used in the articles? Does frequency differ among the frames? Q2 - What constitutes each frame? Which defining features and arguments can be identified for each frame? The results show that climate change is portrayed as an advanced crisis with the need for immediate and massive efforts to limit the consequences. The newspaper highlights the importance of lowering individual footprint, the need for a green approach in markets and above all, the pivotal role of the UN and transnational agreements for a global solution. More work is needed within the research field to further investigate the findings concluded in this paper.

This thesis analysed the variety of views expressed about disparities between Romanian Roma and non-Roma by people who are actively engaged in redressing unjust social and economic differences. The focus was placed on the variability of views between and within three different contexts: academic texts proposing policy measures for addressing disparities between Roma and non-Roma people; policy documents concerning measures for Roma inclusion; and conversations by people involved in the implementation of Roma inclusion policy measures. The general concerns of this study were to identify (1) the ways in which the problem of ethnic disparity was portrayed, (2) the solutions proposed to the problem of ethnic disparity, (3) the ambivalent, dilemmatic or concealed aspects concerning the topic of disparities between Roma and non-Roma people living in Romania, (4) whether the perspectives of Roma people were accounted for in the contexts analyses and (5) the similarities and differences between the discourses of academics, policy makers, practitioners and beneficiaries of public policies concerning disparities. The theoretical foundation for this thesis was offered by the social psychological literature that links disparities between groups of people and racial or ethnic prejudice. There are four ways in which this thesis has contributed to this literature. Firstly, most of the social psychological research on ethnic disparities has been experimental, whereas in this thesis, the focus was on the often overlooked discursive practices concerning ethnic disparities. Secondly, although some of the social psychological literature, especially research on the contact hypothesis and social identity theory, has looked at the dynamic interrelationship between advantaged and disadvantaged group members, most research has focused only on the perspectives of the advantaged group members. Therefore, there remains a research gap in the literature concerning the perspectives presented in inter-ethnic interactions, and even more so, by disadvantaged group members. This thesis added to the analysis the perspectives of advantaged and disadvantaged group members, both separately and in interaction. Thirdly, whereas emergent work looks at the ambivalent views towards ethnic or racial minorities, and the possible ironic effects of prejudice reduction strategies, there is virtually no research about the possible ironic, ambivalent or dilemmatic effects of strategies which target systemic based ethnic disparities - issues explored in this thesis. Finally, most social psychological research focuses on a single context of study, most commonly the public perceptions about members of the disadvantaged groups, but also marginally mass media representations, academic publications or political discourses. This thesis places attention on an equally important area of study concerned with whether and how discourses can move between different domains, and the impact or acknowledgement of elite discourses on the everyday conversations. There are four key findings that emerged from the studies conducted for this thesis. Firstly, it was found that while expressing views about ethnic disparity, academics, policymakers, practitioners and beneficiaries of public policies for Roma people displayed subtle forms of ethnicism. Secondly, a great deal of political discourse was devoted to the encouragement of individual changes in ethnic minorities, without a similar focus on the roles of majority group members in perpetuating inequality. Whereas, the problem of Roma inclusion was acknowledged by academics, policymakers, practitioners and beneficiaries of policy measures, to be a matter for public policies, some of the attribution of responsibility for inclusion was offered to Roma people, who were encouraged to change as individuals in accord with majoritarian norms. Thirdly, the analysis showed the inclusion of the perspectives of ethnic minorities only in two of the three contexts where policy measures for Roma people were proposed and implemented: academic publications and conversations. The perspectives of feminist experts and women were only marginally present in academic publications and conversations, while missing from policy discourses. Also the perspectives of academics or the non-hegemonic voices of excluded or disadvantaged Roma people were largely absent from the arguments presented in policy documents for Roma inclusion. Lastly, this thesis found that there are ambivalence, dilemmas and concealment at work within arguments proposing policy measures for redressing ethnic disparities, with important political consequences. The findings of this thesis contribute to the important conversation about the meanings of disparity and the political solutions for achieving equality between groups of people. Also, the findings of this thesis have important implications for the social psychological theory of disparity, the policies for redressing disparity and the social work practice with disadvantaged group members.

Research shows that women's lives are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change. While the topic of women is largely absent from climate discourse overall, the representations of women that occur reveal underlying structures of power rooted in imperialism and colonial dominance. This thesis presents an analysis of the ways in which the category "woman" is constructed in climate change discourse by utilizing data from the micro-blogging site Twitter.com in the 60 days surrounding the 17th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP17) in 2011. The findings of this research are that women are represented through imageries of violence and victimization, while simultaneously constructed as mythical heroines/warriors who will defend and save humanity from this global threat. Using transnational and postcolonial feminist theory, I critique these representations and examine the function and consequences of the narrow representations of women in climate change discourse. Based on the findings, this thesis suggests that a shift towards the discursive feminization of climate change could occur in the future, wherein the ways in which climate change is viewed and responded to may move from the current frame of governability, commodification, and securitization, to a frame that sees climate change as a "women's issue." Feminist intervention into climate change discourse is greatly lacking, and this thesis argues that feminist engagement with the problem of climate change is necessary for gender justice in our climate-altered world. / Graduation date: 2012

This thesis investigates the policy frames employed by civil society organizations (CSOs) in the network neutrality debate in Canada and the United States. Network neutrality is defined as restrictions on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to respect freedom of expression on the Internet and not seek to prevent innovative competition nor control the services or content available to users. The primary question under investigation is the policy frames of CSOs in the debate. The second question is whether CSOs have influenced policy outcomes in either legislation or regulation. The focus of the analysis is on regulatory agencies (CRTC and FCC); proposed legislation in Parliament and Congress is also analyzed as well. By examining the arguments advanced by various policy participants (government, ISPs, and CSOs), common points can be identified that may help the participants come to agreement.

This thesis investigates the policy frames employed by civil society organizations (CSOs) in the network neutrality debate in Canada and the United States. Network neutrality is defined as restrictions on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to respect freedom of expression on the Internet and not seek to prevent innovative competition nor control the services or content available to users. The primary question under investigation is the policy frames of CSOs in the debate. The second question is whether CSOs have influenced policy outcomes in either legislation or regulation. The focus of the analysis is on regulatory agencies (CRTC and FCC); proposed legislation in Parliament and Congress is also analyzed as well. By examining the arguments advanced by various policy participants (government, ISPs, and CSOs), common points can be identified that may help the participants come to agreement.