This study investigates China's international trade with North Africa from a small-sized tradersperspective, while referring to the Belt and Road Initiative’s (B&R) practical influence.Further, the research focuses on how the traders perceive the challenges related to trade withNorth African countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, etc. Moreover, the study explores thedifferent challenges related to international trade, international business, and at last, psychicand cultural distance with consideration to prior research. A qualitative approach was adoptedin order to answer the research question for this study. The approach consisted of a series of indepth interviews that were conducted with traders within different industries. The data collection process focused on gaining insights related to the trade challenges in an attempt to distinguish between their nature. The findings point out that the challenges perceived are four-fold: Trade Incentives, Business Development, Government Intervention and Culture’s Influence. Meanwhile, the impact of B&R is comprehended as a catalyst for bilateral economic development.

This thesis examines the Chinese investment programme; the Belt and Road Initiative, through a post-colonial lens, to categorise whether it fits the postcolonial draining of emerging economies. The purpose of this research is to broaden the way we see post-colonial relationships and contribute to the notion that all advanced economies can have a draining relationship with emerging ones. This is done by examining the geographical and economical aspects of the BRI-projects in two states; Kenya and Sri Lanka, to detect draining. The thesis comes to the conclusion that China, through the Belt and Road Initiative, fits the post-colonial description of draining the examined states. The results hopefully mean a humble contribution to the broadening of what is included in the post-colonial theory.

The purpose of this essay is to explore China's foreign policy through Joseph S. Nye's theory of power applied on the Belt and Road Initiative. It aims to answer whether or not China's foreign policy has changed during Xi Jinping's presidency and in what way Belt and Road Initiative can be explained in terms of power behaviour and power resources. The method used in this essay is that of a case study. The empirical evidence shows that China's foreign policy has changed in a direction that is meant to strengthen Xi Jinping's influence and that Belt and Road Initiative is a project with the intention to accumulate economic resources. It also shows that China's government and domestic policies weakens its "soft power" resources due to restraints in its civil society.  The essayc concludes that the Belt and Road Initiative is China and Xi Jinping's expansion strategy whose main objective is to create incentives for Chinese domestic, economic growth. It also concludes that Chinese "soft power" would increase if the domestic policies would aim for a more democratic course.

The aim of this thesis is to provide an in-depth analysis on the projected nature of China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative through Chinese engagement in Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Serbia. The current geopolitical situation provides a unique opportunity for the use of the Heartland Theory, first presented by Halford John Mackinder in 1904, which outlines and justifies state expansion across Eurasia. The main objectives of this thesis are to discuss possible outcomes for Serbia following increased Chinese investment and to provide a recommendation for a European response. Being an adjacent nation of the Heartland, a potential future member of the European Union, and currently balanced between Europe's and China's pull, Serbia has became a unique and important state to consider when assessing China's intentions in Europe. China's continued economic and political rise in recent years has allowed them to become influential in nations previously untethered to China, and has ominously begun to follow the footsteps that Mackinder had predicted a century prior. Although the theory suggests a nation's intent to rule the world, which one could argue China is pursuing, the aim of this thesis is in fact to uncover and illustrate the effects that China's potential advance to world...

China’s influence is increasing steadily in all corners of the world. One of China’s foreign policy goals is to become a technological superpower by 2025. An important part of that goal is the Digital Silk Road (DSR), a sub-project to China’s massive infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative. The DSR is on one hand contributing to positive technological developments, especially in developing countries. But on the other hand, it has gotten substantial criticism for being a front for spreading China’s digital authoritarian model and for giving authoritarian regimes the tools to effectively repress citizens and violate human rights. The aim of this study is twofold. The first aim is to examine and map out how China might be promoting autocracy through the DSR, this will contribute to a deeper empirical understanding. The second aim is to give a theoretical contribution by categorizing autocracy promotion and testing the value of active and passive autocracy promotion in relation to China and the DSR. To conduct the analysis, I will draw on literature about autocracy promotion and digital authoritarianism. The existing literature is divided on whether or not China is promoting autocracy, and I will thus be arguing that technological advances, and the DSR, makes it problematic to claim that China is not engaged in autocracy promotion. Therefore, I seek to contribute to the existing literature. The results show that China is in fact involved in autocracy promotion through the different DSR projects. It also shows that China’s support, in some cases, have been crucial in providing authoritarian regimes with repressive technologies. The results also indicate that promoting autocracy might not be an outspoken goal or strategy from China, but rather an unintended consequence when trying to reach domestic political and economic goals.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Mountainous areas are important water sources in many landscapes. An understanding of how mountainous catchments function is important particularly in semi-arid areas, where water shortages are prevalent. In addition to climate and physiographic factors, the hydrological responses of mountainous catchments can be influenced by land uses and land cover types. Although the general effects of land use and land cover types on hydrological processes are known, prediction of the specific effects in a given catchment is still problematic. This study characterized flowpaths, and hydrological responses to different land cover types in a semi-arid, mountainous Kromme River catchment (Eastern Cape province of South Africa), located in the Cape Fold Mountains of the Table Mountain Group (TMG) geological region.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The systemic racism imposed on the lives and education aspiration of six of my elders who stayed in the racist South during the ferociously deleterious era of Jim Crow is the focus of this phenomenological critical race study. These stories centered the voices of my elders as powerful weapons to expose white supremacy and the psychophysiological trauma imposed upon my elders. These stories were about the lives, lived experiences, and educational trials and triumphs of six of my Brown and Black hue American elders whose ancestry was born out of slavery and delivered into the vicious Jim Crow era. My work was grounded in Phenomenological Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory validates my elders’ narratives and their narratives fortify the tenets of CRT. For you see, racism was an everyday phenomenon my elders experienced as residents of rural Southern America. My elders came to understand “what” they were, Black, by understanding “who” they were not, White. Furthermore, this qualitative phenomenological critical race study was guided by three inquiries, what experiences have you had with Jim Crow; how or in what ways did your experiences with Jim Crow affect your education; and how or in what ways did your experience with Jim Crow affect your life? These inquiries produced four intersecting themes, 1) the survival of racism as part of everyday life, 2) economic exploitation of Black labor, 3) denial of equitable education, and 4) the sociopolitical construction of racial identity, and three significant findings, racist place, sociopolitical oppression, and inequitable education.

Ambulanser kör ofta i hög hastighet och gör så vid dygnets alla tidpunkter och vid alla årstider. Vid en eventuell kollision innebär en undermålig säkerhetsbältesanvändning en betydande risk för skador, både för patienten, vårdaren och eventuella medåkare. Det ställs höga krav på hur ambulanser ska vara utrustade vad gäller bland annat inredning och medicinskteknisk utrustning. Detta för att garantera säkerheten för både patienter och personal. Att vistas i ambulansens vårdhytt har visat sig innebära en ökad risk för olyckor och dödsfall jämfört med andra arbetsplatser inom vården. Flertalet studier har gjorts avseende personalens bältesanvändning i vårdhytten men inte i samma utsträckning vad gäller bältesanvändning på ambulansbåren. Studiens syfte var att belysa användningen av ambulansbårens säkerhetsbälten vid transport av vuxna patienter i ambulans. Syftet nåddes genom insamling av data avseende bältesanvändning och personalens inställning till centrala begrepp, vilket skedde med enkät som metod. Resultatet visade att patienter inte åker obältade och att midjebältet var det vanligast använda bältet. Underbensbältet var det minst använda bältet. En knapp tredjedel av vårdarna i studien använde samtliga befintliga bälten på båren och bara en tredjedel av dessa applicerade dessutom bältena på ett korrekt och ändamålsenligt sätt. Två olika bårar användes i studien. På bår B användes axelbälten i högre utsträckning än på bår A. Den vanligaste orsaken till att axelbälten inte användes var att vårdaren rutinmässigt inte brukade använda dessa. Detta gällde för urvalet i allmänhet och för bår A i synnerhet. Utbildningsmetod och användningsgrad av det egna säkerhetsbältet i vårdhytten påverkade inte vårdarens benägenhet att använda patientens säkerhetsbälten vid transport på bår. Av studiens resultat kunde slutsatsen dras att säkerhetsbältesanvändningen i ambulansen har stor förbättringspotential. Resultatet påvisade tydliga brister i användningen av bårens säkerhetsbälten vid patienttransport. Att säkerhetsbältesanvändningen för patienterna i ambulansen förs upp till diskussion, anser forskarna, är mycket viktigt för att främja såväl patientsäkerheten som trafiksäkerheten och ambulanspersonalens arbetsmiljö. / Ambulances frequently drive at high speed, at all hours and all through the year. In case of a collision there is a significant risk of injury to patients and staff alike if seat belts are not used properly. To guarantee the safety of patients and staff while travelling in the ambulance high standards are set for the fitting and medical technical equipment of the vehicle. Travelling in the back of an ambulance has shown an increased risk of injury and death compared to other workplaces in the nursing community. Several studies have been conducted regarding the use of seat belts use for the ambulance staff, but not when it comes to the use of seat belts on the ambulance stretcher. The aim of this study was to high-light the use of seat belts on the ambulance stretcher in transporting adult patients in the ambulance. This was accomplished by the collection of data regarding the use of seat belts and the staff’s view on some central concepts. This was achieved by using a questionnaire as method. The result showed that patients did not go completely without seat belts and that the waist belt was the most commonly used seat belt. The belt for the lower part of the leg was the least used. Barely a third of the staff in the study used all of the available seat belts on the stretcher, and only a third of those that did, used it in accordance with the instructions from the manufacturer. Two different types of stretchers were used in the study. On stretcher B the shoulder straps were used more frequently than on stretcher A. The most common reason for not using the shoulder straps was that the personnel routinely chose not to use them. This applied for the sample as a whole, and more significantly for the users of stretcher A. The method of learning and to what degree the staff used their own seat belts did not correlate to the tendency of using belts on patients. From the result of the study the conclusion can be drawn that the use of seat belts in the ambulance has great potential for improvement. The result pointed to evident deficiencies in the use of seat belts on the stretcher in patient transport. The researchers believe that bringing attention to the use of seat belts for patients in ambulance transportation is very important in promoting patient safety, traffic safety and working environment for the staff.

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