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This study aims to explore the presence of ”China threat” and the securitization of China in Swedish print media. The key objective is to measure the portrayal of China as a threat and if/how that representation has changed during the time period 2012-2022. This is studied through a frame analysis investigating China as an ideological, military, and economic threat. The study shows that the usage of portraying China as an ideological, military and/or economic threat is indeed present and increasing during the period, with a peak of publications in 2019. All frames are used by all studied newspapers, and there is a growing trend visualized through the data. This trend demonstrates that the perspective of China as a threat has become more normative in reporting, proving the notion of that securitization as a speech act is in fact present in the investigated time period. The articles are not portraying China as a direct threat to the readers in Sweden, but rather through ways of causal interpretation and moral evaluation that conceives China as a threat to the liberal international order. The most frequently used attributions are within the ideological threat frame, the second most used frame is the military one closely followed by the usage of attributions from the economic frame. Understanding how China is framed and perceived in Swedish print media can be useful in the exploration of the nuanced phenomena of Sweden-China relations, completed and future policy interventions, and to understand the influences of opinion that the readers might receive to secure an informed, impartial, and globally aware society. This study can be seen as an ignition towards further research in this nestled marvel of securitization and global politics.

“On the Margins: Steady Sellers and the Problem of Inequality in Nineteenth-Century America,” reimagines the trans-Atlantic history of the novel by attending to the importance of cheaply printed canonical books. I demonstrate that some of the most lasting “steady sellers” in literary history—John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, and Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote —owe their fame and endurance to cheap trans-Atlantic abridgments and the poor, Black, female, juvenile and otherwise marginalized readers whose growing demand kept them steadily in print. From chapbook abridgments of Robinson Crusoe pitched to working class readers, to toy book adaptations of The Pilgrim’s Progress for young girls, to illustrated, third-person, single volume adaptations of Pamela that subtly reorient the narrative toward questions of interracial sexual violence, and Jacksonian-era political cartoons satirizing Don Quixote, examples and invocations of these stories in early U.S. print culture suggest that the novel’s literary and material coherence was being vigorously renegotiated against the backdrop of an increasingly diverse print marketplace. We see this conflict most clearly in many of the defining American literary works of the nineteenth-century, including Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851), Susan Warner’s The Wide, Wide World(1850), Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (1884). Each of these works dramatizes the divergent interpretations present in the print histories of steady sellers in ways that center the experiences of marginalized readers. In bringing together the uneven circulation histories of steady sellers and the formation of U.S. literary culture, this project aims to challenge critical orthodoxies about the rise of the novel and acknowledge the vital role that poor, female, Black, and juvenile readers played in the formation, negotiation, and contestation of literary canons. / 2024-11-03T00:00:00Z

Additively manufactured carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are vastly studied for their remarkable mechanical properties compared to most other 3D printed materials. Different methods were employed to further increase mechanical performance of CFRP 3D printed parts. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of autoclave postprocessing on the interlaminar shear behavior between 3D printed CFRP layers. 3D printed CFRP samples were processed with nine combinations of temperature and vacuum in an autoclave. Short beam shear (SBS) tests were performed to characterize the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of the samples after autoclave processing. Digital image correlation (DIC) was utilized to quantify the strain and failure mode of the samples during SBS tests. From SBS mechanical tests, the curing temperature and vacuum of 170 C and -90 kPa produced samples with the highest ILSS, 39 MPa, a 46% improvement compared to uncured samples. The observed failure modes were fracture and delamination. Little work in additive manufacturing has applied autoclave as a post-process procedure. This study aims to explore this technique and establish its viability in improving mechanical performance of 3D printed fiber-reinforced parts.

OBJECTIVES: This in vitro study aims to compare and evaluate the mechanical properties of different 3D-printed resin materials. Determine the impact of 3D printer type on the mechanical properties. Investigate the filler percentage by weight for each resin material. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight resin materials were tested for flexural strength, flexural modulus, microhardness, fracture toughness, and wear resistance. Resin materials: Rodin Sculpture (RS), BEGO VarseoSmile Crown Plus (BVS), Desktop Health Flexcera Smile Ultra Plus (DHF), SprintRay Crown (SRC), SprintRay Ceramic Crown (SCC), Saremco Crowntec (SC), Myerson Trusana (MT), PacDent Ceramic Nanohybrid (PAC). 3D printer Asiga Max and Ackuretta SOL were used to print 12 specimens from each material to compare three-point flexural strength in bar-shape, biaxial flexural strength in disc-shape, fracture toughness in single edge V-notched beam, wear resistance in pin-shape. Three discs shape specimens from each material were used to compare the Vickers microhardness. The filler percentage by weight of each material is determined by Ash burning and Solvent extraction. The microstructure of a polished disc from each material was examined under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the elemental composition was investigated by Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS). Results were analyzed using ANOVA, regression of least square means (α = 0.05), Tukey HSD test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Student’s t-test. RESULTS: The flexural strength test results, utilizing the three-point method, reveal significant differences among the materials tested. The highest average was recorded in SCC at 160 MPa, while the lowest was found in SRC at 84.4 MPa. The flexural modulus also exhibited significant differences, with the highest average observed in SCC, BVS, RS, SRC, DHF, SC, and MT, measuring 7.8, 6.2, 6.0, 5.8, 4.9, 4.5, and 3.0 GPa, respectively. The resin materials with the highest biaxial flexural strength were DHF 217 MPa and MT 200 MPa, with no significant distinction between them and different from the remaining materials. SCC demonstrated a notably higher average value in Vickers microhardness 44 HVN, while DHF exhibited a significantly lower value of 15.58. The Fracture toughness test presented no significant differences between DHF, MT, and SCC, with values of 2.28, 2.27, and 2.11 MPa.m0.5, respectively, exceeding the remaining materials. In the wear test, DHF and MT had a significantly higher weight loss rate of 29.25 and 27.18 mg/million cycle, respectively. In contrast, MT's height loss rate of 2.02 mm/million cycle was the only significantly higher difference from other materials. The data indicates that the printer type does not significantly affect biaxial flexural strength. At the same time, Asiga exhibited significantly higher values in three-point flexural strength, flexural modulus and hardness tests. In contrast, the SOL printer demonstrated higher values in fracture toughness than Asiga. The ash and solvent extraction methods revealed that SCC had the highest filler percentage by weight, while MT had the lowest. SEM imaging showed the existence of filler particles in all materials, with PAC containing the largest particles and MT containing the smallest. DHF was the only resin material that contained exclusively spherical shape filler particles. EDS analysis disclosed the elemental composition of each material with a higher percentage in Silica, Oxygen, Barium, Titanium, and Ytterbium. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate significant differences in the tested materials' flexural strength, flexural modulus, biaxial flexural strength, Vickers microhardness, fracture toughness, and wear rates. Even though there are significant differences in some of the mechanical properties of the printer type, it is small and might not have an effect clinically. A strong correlation exists between filler percentage with flexural modulus r = 0.83, biaxial flexural strength r = 0.60, microhardness r = 0.73, and wear resistance r= 0.82. There is a low correlation between filler percentage with fracture toughness r= 0.41, with no correlation with flexural strength in the three-point test. Filler particle percentage highly affects the mechanical properties of 3D printed resin materials. These findings could be valuable in selecting appropriate materials for specific applications.

The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance is among the largest concerns in the world today. One method under development to combat this issue is the encapsulation of microbes in microfluidic droplets for single-cell testing. This method may be able to circumvent the need for a traditional positive cell culture which consumes the majority of the testing time using current diagnostic methods. This dissertation presents a method by which to deterministically encapsulate microbes using an artificial intelligence object detection algorithm and a Droplet-On-Demand microfluidic device. To accomplish this, the Droplet-On-Demand microfluidic device was first developed using a unique 3D-printing manufacturing method. An annular Channel-in-Channel droplet generator was developed which produced droplets within the hydrophobic 3D-printed polymeric microfluidic device. Supporting microfluidic unit operations were also developed including pumps, a 3-way flow-thru valve, and a detection window used for visualizing microfluidic particles. Control software was developed using python which controlled pneumatically-actuated membranes within the microfluidic device, the imaging system, and the object detection algorithm. 20-μm and 2-μm test particles were used as non-biological test particles while red blood cells and fluorescent E.coli baceria were used as biological test particles. All test particles were identified and encapsulated and show the flexibility of the system overall and the ability to identify a variety of particles of interest in microfluidic systems. Growth tests were conducted using E.coli bacteria encapsulated within microfluidic droplets with a fluorescent metabolic indicator. The fluorescence of droplets containing actively growing encapsulated bacteria was quantified using a unique first-principles model paired with an image processing protocol to provide relative concentration data to quantify the growth of the E.coli over time. These growth results indicated that bacterial growth in droplets could be detected and quickly quantified in 4 hours and thus provide practical results to clinicians on the susceptibility of bacteria to an antibiotic. This Droplet-On-Demand technology has the capability of providing clinically applicable data from the most basic and fundamental biological source, an individual cell; and that can be done with low concentrations and on any cell that can be visually identified.

This thesis examines the Boxer Uprising which took place in China around the turn of the twentieth century as a domestic crisis in the United States and the means through which different factions within America shaped the popular perception of the event. It argues that American and Chinese interest groups successfully managed the crisis by developing a narrative that served to further their own interests. These efforts were geared towards convincing an uncertain American public of the necessity and righteousness of particular ways to respond to the crisis. The primary factor in this narrative was a malleable ideal of civilization centered on American concepts of industry, Christianity, and democracy. This thesis maintains that the print media of the day was the essential element for the distribution of this message, which allowed for an explanation to the crisis, the protection of Chinese citizens within the United States, justification for American actions abroad, and a speedy return to the status quo.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) and higher-order thinking (metacognitive processes) are important in education because they contribute to effective learning and improved academic performance. These processes may be facilitated by the implementation of computer technology in the classroom. This research project examined the use of computer technology among elementary school students and possible effects on self-regulated learning and metacognitive processes, including the ability to plan, monitor, evaluate one’s own work, and apply specific learning strategies. Two main research questions were investigated: (1) Do elementary school students demonstrate SRL metacognitive processes when they use computers and paper-pencil for reading-relating tasks, and what are the key SRL metacognitive processes? (2) Are there differences in SRL metacognitive processes between computer-based and paper-pencil reading tasks in elementary grades? Recruitment of students occurred at the local school district’s after-school programs. A total of 52 students from Grades 2-5 consented to participate in two conditions, a computer-based and a paper-pencil reading task, each lasting approximately 30 minutes. Observations, ratings, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The quantitative portion included descriptive and correlational statistics. Differences in SLR metacognitive constructs between conditions and between grades were explored. Inferential statistics employed a 2 x 4 (condition-by-grade) mixed-model Analysis of Variance and follow-up tests. The qualitative portion included primary analytic strategies, thematic analysis, and triangulation across data sources. The results indicated that metacognitive self-regulated learning skills were present in students of primary grades. There were no differences between grades or between conditions for most regulation of cognition constructs except for control and evaluation practices. Among knowledge of cognition constructs, conditional knowledge was higher in the paper than in the computer reading assignment across grades. The qualitative findings corroborated the quantitative results. Students in primary grades demonstrated SRL metacognitive processes, and these were more common in the paper than in the computer condition. These findings are explained by the familiarity with the reading medium, the integration of multimedia and verbal cues, the speed for corrective actions, and the use of prior knowledge. These important insights can contribute to improved academic performance and higher order thinking among young students. The results also suggest that students can benefit from focused instruction to perform transfer of knowledge between the two reading formats - computer and paper.

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