While previous studies have investigated country-of-origin effect from various angles, it remained unexplored the extent to which Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) affects U.S. beef imports from specific countries. Using choice-experiment data, willingness to pay (WTP) for Australian, Canadian beef in addition to other enhancement attributes were estimated with a Mixed Logit Model and a Latent Class Model. The results revealed unobserved taste heterogeneity and important differences in the WTP between the imported and domestic steak. The Latent Class Model estimated the range of discount needed for consumers to switch from U.S. to Canadian steak was a range from $1.09 to $35.12 per pound. Results from the Mixed Logit Model reiterated strong domestic preference. Significant positive WTP for BSE-tested, traceable, and tenderness-assured beef were also observed. In addition, perceived risk theory was utilized to explain the difference in WTP for domestic and imported beef. The psychometric method proposed in Pennings et al. (2002) were adopted, which disentangled perceived risk into risk perception and risk attitude. Using a mixed logit model with error component specification, the result revealed a strong link between risk perception and risk attitude towards consumer choice of country-of-origin labeled beef. Specifically, we found that perceived risk factors have a stronger impact on imported beef than domestic beef, which could partially explain consumers’ aversion towards imported beef. Lastly, the perceived risk framework was expanded to explain variation in the WTP for traceable and BSE-tested beef. The results indicated significant and non-linear impact from risk attitude and risk perception to WTP for the attributes. In addition, BSE-concern, and perceived level of control agribusiness has on food safety significantly influenced WTP for traceable and BSE-tested beef.

全球化妝品與美容相關巿場高達2000億美元，該產業並以每年7%速度成長，超出世界ＧＤＰ成長率的兩倍之多，不止是國外廠商搶攻此巿場，本土業者亦在近年來開始注意本產業，然化妝品直接施用於身體，對人體之健康影響不可小覷，當然各國也訂定了許多相關的管理法規，惟不同國家對本產品之態度不盡相同，法令亦各有其特色。本產業在國內的發展亦十分的蓬勃，除了國外的知名品牌之外，眾多本土品牌堀起亦可說是百家爭鳴，但相對的，也產生了許多的問題，特別是在消費者保護的層面，不論是在產品安全或是不實廣告還有標示，皆有許多需要大眾去關切的問題。 論文的第一章為緒論，介紹本篇論文研究動機、目的，研究範圍及方法，並且對全球化妝品產業現況行初步的分析，第二章則對台灣、美國、歐盟及中國的化妝品相關法律規定作分析比較，先簡介各國產業之化妝品法規概況，再整理比較各國化妝品法律規定之異同，介紹新的立法趨勢。第三章將特別討論台灣化妝品產業之消費爭議中產品責任的部份；第四章則討論標示及廣告的議題，並且再介紹化妝品業發展較成熟的歐洲，如何注重研發，並利用智財的策略來提升其競爭力，第五章為結論，綜合前述討論，對台灣的化妝品法規及化妝品產業提出建議及對未來的展望。 　　 論文透過比較各國化妝品法規的方式來了解國內外法律規定的不同，在探討各國對化妝品之定義之後，進一步整理各國化妝品相關之法律規定，檢討其異同並且對各國化妝品法規及管理做初步的檢討，總的來說化妝品法規基本上規範了化妝品的輸入及販賣、製造、抽查及取締及相關罰則，基本上是化妝品製造商、販賣商或進口商最需要重視的法規，然而在規定中，還是有與消費者有直接關係的部份，即是：標籤、仿單及包裝的部份，標籤和仿單是消費者購買商品時，對於該化妝品的成分、用途、用法、保存期限等重要資訊最直接的資訊來源，本論文針對該部份的法律問題行較深的著墨，由於我國本產業有大量的消費者保護爭議，主要兩大問題為產品安全及廣告不實，因此在論文的後半部對於消費者保護法及和廣告相關之法令和公平交易法等法進行探討，並且提出相關案例來對應，由實際案例找出台灣化妝品法規現有的問題。 本研究之最終目的乃是希望為台灣的化妝品相關法規，提供更完善的規範，特別是以能提供給消費者更多保護的角度來發展，期能透過比較各國化妝品相關法規的內容以及現在和未來的趨勢，以做為台灣的參考，並且各種化妝品爭議案例的評析，希望能給政府、消費者或是業者進一步的參考！

The impact and dynamics of Internet-based resources for Arabic-speaking users is increasing in significance, depth and breadth at highest pace than ever, and thus requires updated mechanisms for computational processing of Arabic texts. Arabic is a complex language and as such requires in depth investigation for analysis and improvement of available automatic processing techniques such as root extraction methods or text classification techniques, and for developing text collections that are already labeled, whether with single or multiple labels. This thesis proposes new ideas and methods to improve available automatic processing techniques for Arabic texts. Any automatic processing technique would require data in order to be used and critically reviewed and assessed, and here an attempt to develop a labeled Arabic corpus is also proposed. This thesis is composed of three parts: 1- Arabic corpus development, 2- proposing, improving and implementing root extraction techniques, and 3- proposing and investigating the effect of different pre-processing methods on single-labeled text classification methods for Arabic. This thesis first develops an Arabic corpus that is prepared to be used here for testing root extraction methods as well as single-label text classification techniques. It also enhances a rule-based root extraction method by handling irregular cases (that appear in about 34% of texts). It proposes and implements two expanded algorithms as well as an adjustment for a weight-based method. It also includes the algorithm that handles irregular cases to all and compares the performances of these proposed methods with original ones. This thesis thus develops a root extraction system that handles foreign Arabized words by constructing a list of about 7,000 foreign words. The outcome of the technique with best accuracy results in extracting the correct stem and root for respective words in texts, which is an enhanced rule-based method, is used in the third part of this thesis. This thesis finally proposes and implements a variant term frequency inverse document frequency weighting method, and investigates the effect of using different choices of features in document representation on single-label text classification performance (words, stems or roots as well as including to these choices their respective phrases). This thesis applies forty seven classifiers on all proposed representations and compares their performances. One challenge for researchers in Arabic text processing is that reported root extraction techniques in literature are either not accessible or require a long time to be reproduced while labeled benchmark Arabic text corpus is not fully available online. Also, by now few machine learning techniques were investigated on Arabic where usual preprocessing steps before classification were chosen. Such challenges are addressed in this thesis by developing a new labeled Arabic text corpus for extended applications of computational techniques. Results of investigated issues here show that proposing and implementing an algorithm that handles irregular words in Arabic did improve the performance of all implemented root extraction techniques. The performance of the algorithm that handles such irregular cases is evaluated in terms of accuracy improvement and execution time. Its efficiency is investigated with different document lengths and empirically is found to be linear in time for document lengths less than about 8,000. The rule-based technique is improved the highest among implemented root extraction methods when including the irregular cases handling algorithm. This thesis validates that choosing roots or stems instead of words in documents representations indeed improves single-label classification performance significantly for most used classifiers. However, the effect of extending such representations with their respective phrases on single-label text classification performance shows that it has no significant improvement. Many classifiers were not yet tested for Arabic such as the ripple-down rule classifier. The outcome of comparing the classifiers' performances concludes that the Bayesian network classifier performance is significantly the best in terms of accuracy, training time, and root mean square error values for all proposed and implemented representations.

L’entérotoxine B staphylococcique (SEB) est une toxine entérique hautement résistante à la chaleur et est responsable de plus de 50 % des cas d’intoxication d’origine alimentaire par une entérotoxine. L’objectif principal de ce projet de maîtrise est de développer et valider une méthode basée sur des nouvelles stratégies analytiques permettant la détection et la quantification de SEB dans les matrices alimentaires. Une carte de peptides tryptiques a été produite et 3 peptides tryptiques spécifiques ont été sélectionnés pour servir de peptides témoins à partir des 9 fragments protéolytiques identifiés (couverture de 35 % de la séquence). L’anhydride acétique et la forme deutérée furent utilisés afin de synthétiser des peptides standards marqués avec un isotope léger et lourd. La combinaison de mélanges des deux isotopes à des concentrations molaires différentes fut utilisée afin d’établir la linéarité et les résultats ont démontré que les mesures faites par dilution isotopique combinée au CL-SM/SM respectaient les critères généralement reconnus d’épreuves biologiques avec des valeurs de pente près de 1, des valeurs de R2 supérieure à 0,98 et des coefficients de variation (CV%) inférieurs à 8 %. La précision et l’exactitude de la méthode ont été évaluées à l’aide d’échantillons d’homogénat de viande de poulet dans lesquels SEB a été introduite. SEB a été enrichie à 0,2, 1 et 2 pmol/g. Les résultats analytiques révèlent que la méthode procure une plage d’exactitude de 84,9 à 91,1 %. Dans l’ensemble, les résultats présentés dans ce mémoire démontrent que les méthodes protéomiques peuvent être utilisées efficacement pour détecter et quantifier SEB dans les matrices alimentaires. Mots clés : spectrométrie de masse; marquage isotopique; protéomique quantitative; entérotoxines / Staphylococcal enterotoxin B is a highly heat-resistant enteric toxin and it is responsible for over 50% of enterotoxin food poisoning. It represents a particular challenge during food processing since, even if the bacteria have been destroyed, the biological activity of the toxin remains unchanged. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a new method based on a novel proteomic strategy to detect and quantify SEB in food matrices. Tryptic peptide map was generated and 3 specific tryptic peptides were selected and used as surrogate peptides from 9 identified proteolytic fragments (sequence coverage of 35%). Peptides were label with light and heavy form of acetic anhydride to create an isobaric tag that will allow quantification. The linearity was tested using mixtures of different molar ratios and the results showed that measurements by LC-MS/MS were within generally accepted criteria for bioassays with slope values near to 1, values of R2 above 0.98 and less than 8% coefficient of variation (%CV). The precision and accuracy of the method were assessed using chicken meat homogenate samples spiked with SEB at 0.2, 1 and 2 pmol/g. The results indicated that the method can provide accuracy within 84.9 – 91.1% range. Overall, the results presented in this thesis show that proteomics-based methods can be effectively used to detect, confirm and quantify SEB in food matrices. Keywords: mass spectrometry; stable isotope labeling; quantitative proteomics; enterotoxins

Fluorescent labeling is a method used for visualization of various types of biomolecules including proteins and protein complexes. However, the effect of protein labeling on protein structure and functions has not been investigated so far. The goal of the diploma thesis was to examine an influence of NHS-fluorescein binding on structure and function of human carbonic anhydrase I (hCA-I). The particular aims of this work were to prepare recombinant 15N-hCA-I which was used for NMR structure analysis of carbonic anhydrase upon fluorescent labeling. Furthermore, enzyme activity was measured in order to find out a correlation between the concentration of NHS- fluorescein and protein function. In addition, the reaction mixtures were systematically analyzed by ESI FT-ICR mass spectrometry. The analysis revealed experimental conditions for fluorescent labeling of human carbonic anhydrase I with minimal effect on protein structure and function. The results of this study show that the calculation of molar excess of NHS-fluorescein cannot rely on a simple procedure provided by manufacturer. However, due to decrease of enzyme activity upon fluorescent labeling, it is better to take into count the influence of NHS-fluorescein concentration on the relative enzymatic activity. Moreover, the calculation of molar...

Les recherches sur les interactions porte-greffe/greffon chez la vigne en relation avec l’environnement perdurent depuis plusieurs décennies, mais les mécanismes physiologiques sous-jacents de la vigueur conférée sont toujours incompris. Ce manque de connaissance constitue un frein dans le développement des porte-greffes existants pour contrôler la vigueur et la productivité, ou dans la recherche de nouveaux génotypes de porte-greffe mieux adaptés aux conditions futures de production. L’objectif de ce travail est de comprendre par une approche de biologie intégrative couplant expérimentation et modélisation comment le porte-greffe interagit spécifiquement avec son greffon (et vice versa) pour modifier dès les premières étapes du greffage, les caractéristiques physiologiques de la plante entière afin de coordonner le développement et la croissance des parties aériennes avec celle des parties racinaires. L’azote étant considéré comme un élément-clef de contrôle de la croissance et de l’allocation de la biomasse au sein d’une plante, un accent particulier est porté sur le rôle de la nutrition azotée dans le contrôle trophique de la croissance du couple porte-greffe/greffon. Un travail expérimental en serre a été mené pour caractériser par marquage isotopique les flux d’azote (15N) et de carbone à l’échelle de la plante entière au sein de deux combinaisons de porte-greffe/greffon au stade végétatif : l’une conférant une forte vigueur (CS/1103P), l’autre une faible vigueur (CS/RGM), en réponse à une variation de la disponibilité externe en nitrate. Cette étude sur le couplage entre fonctions d’acquisition et d’utilisation des ressources azotées et carbonées a été complétée par un phénotypage dynamique de la croissance aérienne, de la répartition de biomasse entre les organes et de la composition biochimique et minérale des principaux organes de la plante. Nous avons ainsi pu appréhender les signaux de communication entre la partie aérienne et la partie racinaire de la vigne greffée, ce qui a abouti à l’élaboration d’un modèle conceptuel simplifié du fonctionnement de la vigne greffée. Une première version d’un modèle mécaniste basé sur un formalisme source-puits prenant en compte l’acquisition et l’allocation de C et N au sein de deux compartiments aérien et racinaire, ainsi que leur plasticité vis-à-vis de la disponibilité exogène et endogène en ressources a été élaborée. A terme, le modèle devrait permettre d’identifier des paramètres génétiques clef au niveau racinaire explicitant les différences de croissance et vigueur conférée observées selon les combinaisons porte-greffe/greffon / Research on rootstock/scion interactions in grapevine in relation to the environment persisted for several decades, but the physiological mechanisms determining the rootstock effect on scion vigour are still misunderstood. This lack of knowledge hampers the development of existing rootstocks to control the vigor and productivity, or research new rootstock genotypes better adapted to future conditions of production. The objective of this work is to understand by an integrative biology approach coupling experimentation and modeling how the rootstock interacts specifically with the scion (and vice versa) to change in the early stages of grafting , the physiological characteristics of the whole plant to coordinate the development and growth of the aerial parts with the root parties. Nitrogen is considered a key element in the control of the growth and the biomass allocation within a plant, and a particular emphasis is placed on the role of nitrogen nutrition in the nutritional control of the grafted grapevine growth. Experimental work was conducted in a greenhouse to characterize by isotopic labeling nitrogen (15N) and carbon flow within the whole plant for two rootstock/scion combinations at vegetative stage : one giving a strong vigour (CS/1103P), the other a low vigour (CS / RGM), in response to a change in the external nitrate availability. This study on the coupling between acquisition functions and use of nitrogenous and carbonaceous resources was completed by a dynamic phenotyping aerial growth, the distribution of biomass between the organs and the biochemical and mineral composition of the principal organs of plant. We were able to understand the communication signals between the aerial part and the root part of grafted vines, which led to the development of a simplified conceptual model of the functioning of the grafted vines. A first version of a mechanistic model based on a source-sink formalism taking into account the acquisition and allocation of C and N in both aerial and root compartments and their plasticity to the availability of exogenous and endogenous resource was developed.

La perfusion est un facteur important dans la viabilité et la fonction du myocarde. Des atteintes microvasculaires diffuses, précédant l'infarctus ou l'insuffisance cardiaque sont impliqués dans bon nombre de pathologies cardiaques. Ce travail vise à améliorer les techniques existantes de mesure quantitatives et non-invasive de la perfusion myocardique par marquage de spins artériels (ASL). La première partie de mon travail de thèse a consisté en la mise place chez la souris d'une technique alternative pour mesurer la perfusion myocardique. Celle-ci est basée sur un marquage pulsé et régulièrement répété afin de construire un état d'équilibre de l'aimantation sous l'influence de la perfusion (approche steady-pulsed ASL). Le modèle théorique associé à cette technique spASL a été développé en parallèle afin de quantifier le flux sanguin tissulaire. Il a été montré que spASL permettait d'obtenir un résultat similaire aux techniques existantes avec en plus, les avantages d'améliorer la sensibilité au signal de perfusion ainsi que de réduire le temps d'acquisition. Dans un second temps, un transfert vers l'imagerie clinique pour une application chez l'homme a été entrepris. Le marquage de type spASL a été conservé et le module de lecture a été adapté aux spécificités de l'imagerie cardiaque chez l'homme pour une acquisition en respiration libre. Un post-traitement dédié qui comprend une correction de mouvement rétrospective a ensuite vu le jour afin d'améliorer la robustesse de nos mesures. Parallèlement aux développements conduits chez l'homme, nous avons exploité l'approche spASL chez l'animal en proposant diverses améliorations en fonction des études menées. / Myocardial blood flow is an important factor of tissue viability and function. Diffuse changes in microcirculation preceding heart failure are involved in various cardiac pathologies. This work aim at improving existing techniques allowing quantitative and non-invasive myocardial perfusion assessment using arterial spin labeling. The first step of my work was to design an alternative approach to quantify myocardial blood flow in mice. The so called steady-pulsed ASL (spASL) is based on a regularly repeated pulsed labeling in order to build up a stationary regime of the magnetization under the influence of perfusion. The associated theoretical model has been developed in parallel to quantify tissue blood flow. We have shown that spASL allows to obtain similar results than the previously employed techniques, with the additional advantages of an increased sensitivity to the perfusion signal and a reduced acquisition time. A transfer towards clinical imaging for human applications was then undertaken. The spASL labeling scheme has been preserved while adapting the readout module to the specificities of cardiac MRI when applied to free-breathing human acquisitions. A dedicated post-processing, which includes a retrospective motion correction, has emerged subsequently to improve the robustness of our measurements. In parallel to the developments made for human studies, some optimization of the spASL technique when applied to rodent have been carried out depending on the conducted studies.

[pt] Rótulos virtuais são utilizados em aplicações de computação gráfica para representar informações textuais dispostas sobre superfícies geométricas. Tais informações consistem em nomes, numerações, ou outros dados relevantes que precisem ser notados rapidamente quando um usuário examina os objetos da cena. Este trabalho tem como foco os chamados modelos massivos, como modelos CAD (Computer Aided Design) de refinarias de petróleo, os quais possuem um grande número de primitivas geométricas cujo rendering apresenta um alto custo computacional. Em grandes projetos de engenharia, é desejável a visualização imediata de informações específicas de cada objeto ou de partes do modelo, as quais, se exibidas por meio de técnicas convencionais de texturização podem extrapolar os recursos computacionais disponíveis. Nesta dissertação desenvolvemos uma forma de exibir, em tempo real, rótulos virtuais com informações distintas, nas superfícies de objetos de modelos massivos. A técnica é implementada inteiramente em GPU, não apresenta perda significativa de desempenho e possui um baixo gasto de memória. Os objetos de modelos CAD são o foco principal do trabalho, apesar de a solução poder ser utilizada em outros tipos de objetos desde que suas coordenadas de textura sejam corretamente ajustadas. / [en] Virtual Labels are used in computer graphics applications to represent textual information arranged on geometric surfaces. Such information consists of names, numbering, or other relevant data that need to be noticed quickly when a user scans the objects in the scene. This paper focuses on the so-called massive models, as CAD models (Computer Aided Design) of oil refineries, which have a large number of geometric primitives whose rendering presents a high computational cost. In large engineering projects, the immediate visualization of information specific to each object or parts of the model is desirable, which, if displayed by conventional texturing techniques can extrapolate the available computational resources. In this work we have developed a way to view, in real time, virtual labels with different information on the surfaces of objects in massive models. The technique is implemented entirely on the GPU, shows no significant loss of performance and low memory cost. CAD models objects are the main focus of the work, although the solution can be used in other types of objects once their texture coordinates are adjusted correctly.

Kravmärkningen existerar för att främja ekologisk framtagning av livsmedel, märkningen har existerat länge och vuxit till att bli ett välkänt varumärke. Hur väl märkningen fungerar för att påverka konsumtionen är något som är värt att studera närmare. Kravmärkta varor är generellt dyrare att producera och får därmed ett dyrare pris på marknaden. Därför krävs det att konsumenter har en vilja att betala för detta. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida denna betalningsvilja faktiskt existerar hos studenter. Vi har inkluderat teorier för inkomstelasticitet, priselasticitet, externa effekter och nudging. Tillsammans med tidigare forskning har det diskuterats kring faktorer som påverkar studenters betalningsvilja. En enkätundersökning har även genomförts för att granska studenters kunskaper om Kravmärkningen samt testa deras betalningsvilja för specifikt utvalda konventionella respektive Kravmärkta livsmedel. Utöver enkätundersökningen har information samlats in genom en mailkorrespondens med butikschefen på Maxi ICA Stormarknad Linköping för att få mer kunskap kring eventuella strategier livsmedelsbutiken använder sig av. Studien visar att studenterna generellt är väl informerade om existensen av Krav som miljömärke, dock är kunskaperna låga rörande Krav:s arbete och syfte. Vi har observerat att det generellt är färre individer som väljer Kravmärkt framför konventionellt, resultatet skiljer sig dock för olika livsmedel. Faktorn inkomst har vi observerat flera samband gällande, då de högre inkomstintervallen verkar vara synonymt med den högsta angivna betalningsviljan för Bregott. För äggen däremot syns inget tydligt samband mellan högre inkomstintervall och högre betalningsvilja. Ytterligare en faktor som har stor påverkan på betalningsviljan är pris, då större prisskillnader mellan konventionellt och Kravmärkt resulterat i att fler väljer det konventionella alternativet. Individuella preferenser som visat att konsumenten väljer att prioritera miljömärkningar visar att en viss kännedom existerar, men skillnad mellan kännedom och faktiskt agerande föreligger. Vilket även tidigare forskning styrker. Preferenser styr inte konsumtionen i samtliga fall, utan pris verkar vara största influerade faktorn. Detta kan grunda sig i omständigheterna, som bland annat i denna studie skulle kunna vara att urvalspopulationen består av studenter. / The ecolabel Krav exists to promote organic food production. The label has existed for a long time and has grown to be a well-recognized brand. How well the label works to influence consumption is something worth investigate more closely. Since the ecolabeled food are generally more expensive to produce, and thus get a higher market price, consumers must have a desire to pay the higher price. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the willingness to pay actually exists among students. The included theories are income elasticity, price elasticity, external effects and nudging. These together with previous research have discussed the factors concerning consumers behavior. A survey has also been conducted to examine students knowledge concerning the ecolabel Krav, and to test their willingness to pay for selected conventional and Krav labelled groceries. In addition to the survey, information has been collected through an email correspondence with the store manager at Maxi ICA Stormarknad Linköping to get information about possible strategies the grocery store use. The study shows that consumers are well informed about the existence of Krav as an ecolabel, but the knowledge is poor regarding the work Krav is performing and the purpose of it. We have generally observed that there are fewer individuals choosing the ecolabel Krav over conventional, the result differs between groceries. We have observed several connections regarding the factor income, the higher income ranges seem to be a synonym with the highest willingness to pay for Bregott. For the eggs, we cannot see any clear connection between the higher income ranges and the higher willingness to pay. Another factor that has high impact on the willingness to pay is the price, when a bigger price difference between conventional and Krav groceries exist, this results in a connection that more individuals chose the conventional option. Individual preferences of ecolabels show that a certain awareness exist, but that there is a difference in awareness and action. Which previous research strengthens. Preferences does not determine consumption in all cases, instead price seems to be the deciding factor. This can be based on the selected population which are students.

Med ett kritiskt diskursanalytiskt tillvägagångssätt har denna studien analyserat hur två rikstäckande kvällsmedier, Aftonbladet och Expressen, skriver om begreppet utsatta områden genom sina publiceringar. Studien vill reda ut huruvida begreppet används på ett speciellt sätt. För att analysera materialet som bestod av 30 texter, inklusive debattartiklar, ledartexter, redaktionella artiklar och reportage från de nämnda tidningarna användes Faircloughs tredimensionella modell för kritisk diskursanalys. Dettaresulterade i identifierandet av fyra särskilda diskurser eller teman som vi har kallat: “Vad är utsatta områden?”, “En gärningsperson utan ansikte –konsekvenser av att fråntas agens”, “Politiker på vit häst” samt “Vi och dem”. Dessa diskuterades sedan utifrån Faircloughs teorier om kritisk diskursanalys samt andra sociologiska teorier som bedömdes som relevanta i sammanhanget där stämplingsteori är den mest framstående. Studien kommer fram till att begreppet utsatta områden används på ett sätt som präglas av få ifrågasättanden av begreppet samt att diskursen kan influeras av det som polisen framhåller i sin rapport om utsatta områden. Vidare framhålls utsatta områden som något som skiljer sig från övriga områden i samhället. Det diskuteras även vilka följder diskurserna kan ha på dessa områden och dess invånare samt vilka följder det kan tänkas få för det sociala arbetet. / With a critical discourse analytical approach, this study has analyzed how two nationwide newspapers, Aftonbladet and Expressen, write about the concept of vulnerable areas through their publications. The study wants to find out whether the concept is used in a certain way. To analyze the material that consisted of 30 texts, including letters to the editors, editorials, editorial articles as well as reports from the aforementioned newspapers, Fairclough's three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis was used. This resulted in the identification of four discourses or themes that we have named: "What are vulnerable areas?", "A perpetrator without a face -consequences of being deprived of agency", "Politicians on a white horse" and "We and them". These were then discussed based on Fairclough's theories on critical discourse analysis and other sociological theories that were deemed relevant in the context where labeling theory is the most prominent. The study concludes that the concept of vulnerable areas is used ina way that is characterized by few questioning the term and that the discourse may be influenced by what the police feature in their report on vulnerable areas. Furthermore, vulnerable areas are emphasized as something that differs from other areas in society. The study also discusses what consequences the discourses may have for these areas and its inhabitants, as well as what consequences this may have for social work.