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This thesis’ original contribution to knowledge is to indicate the unique contribution of qasbah­‐based Urdu newspapers to the emergence of an Urdu public sphere in early 20^th century South Asia, using as a primary lens the Urdu newspaper Madīnah. In doing so, this thesis will shed light on debates relating to Muslim religious identity, urban life, social status, and gender reform. Madīnah newspaper was published in Bijnor qasbah in Bijnor district, UP, from 1912 onwards. By the early 20^th century, elite, literate qasbah dwellers increased their attachment to their ashrāf identity, even as the definition of that social status group was being transformed. The nature of ashrāf conceptions of the qasbah in the Urdu newspaper conversation sheds light onto the nature of the Urdu public sphere, complicating existing narrative explanations of UP Muslim identity transformations. In the 12 years that constitute the span of the study, international developments such as the Italo-­‐Turkish War, the Balkan Wars, and World War I, with domestic transformations in municipal policies and the activism of some Hindu groups motivated Muslims to redefine their place in early 20^th century society. At the same time, the early 20^th century saw the rising prominence of the qasbah as a centre of spiritual and cultural life among ashrāf Muslims. World War I and the non-­‐cooperation movement threatened the British Empire’s hold on South Asia. In the midst of these shifting sands stood the city of Bijnor, a backwoods qasbah in the district of the same name. Bijnor’s publication Madīnah provided a regional platform for scholars, laymen, and poets to discuss their place in the new order. As part of a network of literary publications exchanged between qasbahs in the first half of the twentieth century, Madīnah shaped and complicated gender boundaries, religious identity, social status, and political alliance, all in the service of the Muslim ummah, or community. This thesis places Madīnah in the context of the broader Urdu newspaper market and the incipient newspaper culture of qasbahs, which both reflected the broadened geographic horizon of the qasbatī ashrāf and placed a premium on the qasbah as a place set apart from the city. After laying this foundation, the thesis turns to the place of Islam in qasbah newspapers and Madīnah. Newspapers reflected a division among ashrāf regarding the centrality of Islam in elite culture, revealing an ideological division between the qasbah and major urban centres Delhi, Lucknow, and Calcutta. Madīnah and other newspapers sought to establish an indelible link between Islam and ashrāf identity, in contrast to some urban newspapers, which sought to lay the groundwork instead for a secular, nationalized Muslim identity. This thesis then turns to the expanding geographic horizons of Madīnah newspaper, both enabled by novel technology and neutralized as a threat by careful framing of international and trans-‐regional content. The subsequent chapter deals with Madīnah's Women’s Newspaper, which demonstrated a trend toward gender ventriloquism in reformist approaches to gender. Many articles penned ostensibly by women had male authors; Madīnah's articles expressed a complex set of reactions to intimate female experiences, including curiosity, fascination, and anxiety. Qasbah newspapers offer new avenues for insight into the tensions that characterized the Urdu public of the early 20^th century. This thesis highlights the character of qasbatī ashrāf's engagement with the broader literary conversation via newspapers during a time of dramatic social transformation, in the process contributing to the form of the Urdu public sphere.

This thesis analyses the nation-building work that the Indian Army undertook during the military administration of Malaya, 1945-6. This was a two-part process, taking in military-led relief work and a political reform scheme. Historians have conducted little work on the Indian Army’s role in the British return to empire in Malaya, thus the army’s crucial and nuanced role has been overlooked. This limits the understanding of the army’s institutional development and role in Malayan nation-building between 1945-6. This thesis redresses this. It argues that the military administration of Malaya encapsulated the culmination of wartime changes to the role of the Indian Army fighting soldier. Whereas before the war the Indian Army found it expedient to keep its soldiers isolated from current affairs, British experience during the Second World War instead suggested that soldiers educated in current affairs could be very effective. Concurrently, British military leaders began to think on the role of the Indian Army and its men after the war. They concluded that the Indian Army’s soldiers could become catalysts of national political and social development, and initially identified this as a role for the army in post-war India. Furthermore, it was felt that the Indian Army could contribute both to the Commonwealth and United Nations ideals. The return to Malaya encapsulated these changes to the conception of the Indian Army soldier and was a practical expression and measure of these. The soldiers became agents of political change, imperial re-entrenchment and administration – which this thesis terms ‘soldier-administrators’. The Indian Army, it is argued, was deployed consciously as a nation-building force, using the new thinking on the role of Indian Army soldiers. In so doing, the Indian Army partook in targeted schemes for military relief, political reform and nation-building to try to build the new Malayan nation.

In the decade following the Asian-African Conference of 1955, the communist government of the People’s Republic of China took unprecedented interest in its relations with countries in the Middle East. China’s leaders formed particularly strong ties first with Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt, then, beginning in 1958, with the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), which at that time was engaged in a bitter struggle for independence from France. The bonds that developed between China and Egypt and between China and Algeria were strengthened by a shared commitment of the governments of these countries to carry out “revolutions” that would challenge Western preeminence in global affairs and establish their own societies as independent voices on the world stage. The common ideological heritage of these three revolutionary countries allowed their leaders to forge connections that went beyond mere expressions of mutual support. Sino-Arab relations in the 1950s and 1960s cannot be explained by a realist narrative of attempts to exert power or influence through high-level diplomacy; rather, the evolving relationships between China and its Arab allies demonstrate how three countries could co-opt one another’s experiences to define and articulate their own nationalist identities on behalf of domestic audiences. This thesis pays particular attention to two constituencies that played a central role in mediating the development of Sino-Arab relations: Chinese Muslims and Arab leftists. Focusing on publications about Sino-Arab relations written by or intended for members of these two groups makes clear the manners in which domestic ideological concerns shaped the development of international relationships. Sino-Egyptian and Sino-Algerian relations between 1955 and 1965 were primarily symbolic. The perception of international amity gave journalists, policymakers, intellectuals, and religious figures free rein to expound their own distorted interpretations of Chinese and Arab society in order to promote their own ideological causes. These causes, which varied over the course of the decade, included the incorporation of Chinese Muslims into Chinese politics, the conferral of revolutionary legitimacy on Nasser’s government, the celebration of China as a champion of global revolution, the legitimization of the FLN, and the presentation of China as a fully anti-imperialist country in contrast to the Soviet Union. Each of these projects had in common the enduring goal of transforming how citizens of China, Egypt, and Algeria perceived their own national identity.

The planned language Esperanto achieved popularity in early twentieth century Japan, inspiring a national movement which was the largest outside Europe. Esperanto was designed to facilitate greater international and inter-cultural communication and understanding; the history of the language in Japan reveals a rich tradition of internationalism in Japan, stretching from the beginnings of the movement, in the wake of the Russo-Japanese war, through the end of the Pacific war, when, for a brief period, organised Esperanto in Japan ceased. Building upon existing studies of internationalism amongst elite opinion makers in Japan, this history of Esperanto reveals unexpected examples of internationalism amongst the broader Japanese public, a number of competing conceptions of the international world, and their realisation through a range of transnational activities. Esperanto was at once an intellectual phenomenon, and a language which could be put into immediate and concrete practice. The diversity of social groups and intellectual positions within the Japanese Esperanto community reveals internationalism and cosmopolitanism, not as well defined, static concepts, but as broad spaces in which different ideas of the world and the community of mankind could be debated. What linked the various different groups and individuals drawn into the Japanese Esperanto movement was a shared desire to make contact with, and help to reform, the world beyond Japan's borders, as well as a shared realisation of the vital role of language in making this contact possible. From radical socialists to conservative academics, and from Japanese diplomats at the League of Nations to members of rural communities in the deep north of Japan, although their politics often differed, Japanese Esperantists came together to participate in the re-imagining of the modern world; in doing so they became part of a transnational community, one which reveals insights into both modern Japanese history, and the nature of internationalism.

Bakgrund: Barn som far illa är ett folkhälsoproblem. Det har visat sig att beteendeproblem hos barn redan vid tre års ålder kan påverka deras framtida risker för psykisk ohälsa, kriminalitet, missbruk, avhopp från skolan, koncentrationssvårigheter och utanförskap. Barns beteende kan påverkas av relationen till lärarna, föräldrarna och till andra barn. Föräldrarnas psykiska hälsa och sociala situation är riskfaktorer för att barn ska utveckla beteendeproblem. Det finns lagar och förordningar samt föräldrastöd och interventionsprogram för att minska barns utsatthet och främja deras utveckling. Förskoleteamet Tummen är en verksamhet där socionom, specialpedagoger och psykolog samverkar för att främja barns utveckling genom barnsamtal, föräldrasamtal, Marte Meo-filmning, ICDP, nätverksmöten, föräldragrupper och stöd till pedagoger.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur personalen i verksamheten Förskoleteamet Tummen upplever att barnens/familjernas situation har förändrats under den tid då de har fått stöd från Förskoleteamet Tummen.Metod: Det skedde en granskning av 125 enkäter där Förskoleteamet Tummen utvärderade sin verksamhet. Fritextsvar från den öppna frågan: ”På vilket sätt upplever ni att barnets/familjens situation har förändrats under tiden som den varit aktuell hos Förskoleteamet?” analyserades med en innehållsanalys och detta skapade temat "Att främja utveckling för barnets bästa" som bestod av följande huvudkategorier: Barnets utveckling, Föräldrarnas utveckling och Pedagogernas ökade förståelse för barnets behov.Resultat: Resultatet visade att Förskoleteamet Tummen främjade barns utveckling på många olika sätt. Det skedde direkta positiva effekter på barnet genom att barnet blev bättre på att reglera känslor, äta mat, få vänner, samspela med andra, somna, bli mer självständigt, leka och koncentrera sig. Föräldrarna utvecklades i sin föräldraroll och även i sin personliga utveckling då de fick hjälp att förändra sin relation till barnet, interaktionen med barnet, synen på barnet och sin egen livssituation. Pedagogerna fick hjälp att utveckla struktur och sitt bemötande mot barnet samt få ökad förståelse för barnet och dess behov.Slutdiskussion: Resultatdiskussionen utgår från anknytningsteorin och den bioekologiska modellen som teoretiska referensramar. Det visar sig att tidiga insatser kan ha stor inverkan på barnens framtid och att Förskoleteamet Tummen är en mångsidig verksamhet somförebygger problem genom att främja barns utveckling i samspel med barnet, föräldrar, pedagoger och andra instanser. Då föräldrarnas och pedagogernas inverkan på barnets beteende har visat sig vara stor är det viktigt att deras möjligheter att främja barns utveckling stärks. I metoddiskussionen diskuteras studiens trovärdighet. / Background: Child maltreatment is a public health problem. It has been shown that behavioral problems in children at the age of three can affect their future risk for mental illness, crime conviction, substance abuse, school dropout, lack of concentration and social exclusion. Children's behavior can be influenced by the relationship with the teachers, parents and the other children. The mental health and socioeconomic status of the parents are risk factors for children to develop behavior problems. There are laws and regulations that aim to promote the well-being of children. It exist parental support and intervention programs to reduce the vulnerability of children and promote their development. Förskoleteamet Tummen is a interprofessional cooperation establishment where social workers, special educators and psychologists work together to promote the development of children through supporting dialogue with children, supportive dialogue with parents, Marte meo filming, ICDP, network meetings, parental groups and support to educators.Objective: The aim of this study is to examine how the staff in Förskoleteamet Tummen experience that the situation for the children/families have changed during the time they have gotten support from Förskoleteamet Tummen.Method: A review of 125 questionnaires where Förskoleteamet Tummen evaluated the outcome of their support was conducted. Free text responses from the open question: "In what way do you feel that the child/family's situation has changed during the time they have gotten help from Förskoleteamet Tummen?" were analyzed using content analysis and this made the theme "Promoting the development of the child" which consisted of the following main categories: child development, parental development and educationalists increased understanding of the needs of the child.Results: The results showed that Förskoleteamet Tummen promoted the development of children in many different ways. There was a direct positive impact on the child because the child became better at regulating emotions, eating food, making friends, interacting with others, sleep, become more independent, play with others and concentrate. The parents developed in their parental role but also in their personal development. They got help to change their relationship with the child, the interaction with the child, the views of the child and their own situation. The teachers were helped to develop the structure and their attitude towards the child and to increase their understanding of the child and it's needs.Ending discussion: The results were discussed with the attachment theory and the bioecological model as a theoretical framework. It turns out that early interventions can have a major impact on children's future and that Förskoleteamet Tummen is a team with many applications. Because they prevent problems by promoting child development in interaction with the child, parents, educators and others. As parents and educators' impact on the child's behavior has proved to be important, it is important that their potential to promote child development is strengthened. In the method discussion the trustworthiness of this study was discussed.

The main purpose of constructing Intelligent Vehicles is to increase the safety for all traffic participants. The detection of pedestrians, as one of the most vulnerable category of road users, is paramount for any Advance Driver Assistance System (ADAS). Although this topic has been studied for almost fifty years, a perfect solution does not exist yet. This thesis focuses on several aspects regarding pedestrian classification and detection, and has the objective of exploring and comparing multiple light spectrums (Visible, ShortWave Infrared, Far Infrared) and modalities (Intensity, Depth by Stereo Vision, Motion).From the variety of images, the Far Infrared cameras (FIR), capable of measuring the temperature of the scene, are particular interesting for detecting pedestrians. These will usually have higher temperature than the surroundings. Due to the lack of suitable public datasets containing Thermal images, we have acquired and annotated a database, that we will name RIFIR, containing both Visible and Far-Infrared Images. This dataset has allowed us to compare the performance of different state of the art features in the two domains. Moreover, we have proposed a new feature adapted for FIR images, called Intensity Self Similarity (ISS). The ISS representation is based on the relative intensity similarity between different sub-blocks within a pedestrian region of interest. The experiments performed on different image sequences have showed that, in general, FIR spectrum has a better performance than the Visible domain. Nevertheless, the fusion of the two domains provides the best results. The second domain that we have studied is the Short Wave Infrared (SWIR), a light spectrum that was never used before for the task of pedestrian classification and detection. Unlike FIRcameras, SWIR cameras can image through the windshield, and thus be mounted in the vehicle's cabin. In addition, SWIR imagers can have the ability to see clear at long distances, making it suitable for vehicle applications. We have acquired and annotated a database, that we will name RISWIR, containing both Visible and SWIR images. This dataset has allowed us to compare the performance of different pedestrian classification algorithms, along with a comparison between Visible and SWIR. Our tests have showed that SWIR might be promising for ADAS applications,performing better than the Visible domain on the considered dataset. Even if FIR and SWIR have provided promising results, Visible domain is still widely used due to the low cost of the cameras. The classical monocular imagers used for object detectionand classification can lead to a computational time well beyond real-time. Stereo Vision providesa way of reducing the hypothesis search space through the use of depth information contained in the disparity map. Therefore, a robust disparity map is essential in order to have good hypothesis over the location of pedestrians. In this context, in order to compute the disparity map, we haveproposed different cost functions robust to radiometric distortions. Moreover, we have showed that some simple post-processing techniques can have a great impact over the quality of the obtained depth images.The use of the disparity map is not strictly limited to the generation of hypothesis, and couldbe used for some feature computation by providing complementary information to color images.We have studied and compared the performance of features computed from different modalities(Intensity, Depth and Flow) and in two domains (Visible and FIR). The results have showed that the most robust systems are the ones that take into consideration all three modalities, especially when dealing with occlusions.

U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal (1230-1309) was a great adept of the bKa' brgyud school of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly renowned for his knowledge of the Kālacakra tantra and the unique teaching known as the Approach and Attainment of the Three Vajras (rDo rje gsum gyi bsnyen sgrub), said to have been given to him in his vision by Vajrayoginī (rDo rje rnal 'byor ma) in the Miraculous Land (sprul pa'i zhing) of U rgyan. He was the student of the 2nd Karma pa, who entrusted him with the Black Hat, which he passed to the 3rd Karma pa. He was also a great traveller who journeyed widely across and beyond Tibet. He met Qubilai Khan in the capital of Yuan China and visited sacred Buddhist sites in South India. He has been aptly described by van der Kuijp as "the great Tibetan yogi, thaumaturge, scholar, alchemist, and traveler". Thanks to the availability of a large amount of hitherto unknown materials from eleven biographies, the thesis has put considerable weight on the bibliographical comparison and analysis of the different works in an attempt to establish the possible relationship between them. This is supplemented by summaries of the biographies, to give an overview of the protagonist's life in Part One of the thesis. Part Two consists of a critical study of the different phases and aspects of U rgyan pa's life in the unique historical, political and religious context of each phase, drawing materials from the corpus of biographies and in the light of other primary and secondary sources in Tibetan, Chinese and Western languages. In Chapter I, U rgyan pa's family lineage, childhood and early studies are discussed in order to find out how his innate propensities and early studies are represented as having influenced his character. In Chapter II, the account of U rgyan pa's journey to West Tibet and U rgyan is studied. A sixteen-stanza song in his own words epitomising this journey, supplemented by route maps, will be used as a framework to illustrate and reconstruct his journey to the Land of the Ḍākinīs. In Chapter III, the teachings he received and the subsequent transformation of his character and status, are explored. In Chapter IV, his career as a tantric master, his other pilgrimages and benediction trips, and his conflicts with various religious and political authorities, are examined. The materials will be scrutinised in the hope of separating as far as possible fact from fiction.

Three models are developed to analyze the state level conditions fostering the rise of far right parties in the European Union in the last two decades. The political background of these parties is examined. This study offers a definition for far right parties, which combines several previous attempts. The research has focused on the effects of the number of the parties, immigration, and unemployment on support for the far right in Europe. Empirical tests, using a random effects model of fifty elections in eight nations, suggest that there are political, social, and economic conditions that are conducive to electoral success. Specifically, increases in the number of "effective" parties favor the far right, while electoral thresholds serve to dampen support. Immigration proves to be a significant variable. Surprisingly, changes in crime and unemployment rates have a negative effect on support for the far right. Suggestions for future research are offered.

In Sweden, all school staffs are obligated to notify suspected of child abuse or neglect. The study's purpose is to investigate how the notification requirements in Social Services Act, chapter 14, section 1, are applied in primary schools and how to best collaborate among the team of professionals responsible for dealing with suspected child neglect or abuse. The study's research question is: How do the various professions at school (apart from the teachers) deal with suspicions of child neglect or abuse? How does this affect the school management and structural management of suspected neglect? How is the report prepared and submitted to the social services? The results are based on in-depth interviews with nine people of different professions within the school health. Collaboration within the pupil health team worked mainly very well, but in one case, it did not work well at all. Many times, however, it was a lack of communication between student health teams and the teachers. The main conclusion of the study is that the importance of a well-functioning student health team is of paramount importance for dealing correctly with suspected child neglect. Firstly, this is best achieved by ensuring the quality training for school heads in matters relating to the notification obligation. Secondly, the student health personnel have to be well known faces among the teachers. Thirdly, it is crucial that horizontal cooperation is initiated by the principal. Fourthly, it also emerged that team members, teachers and other staff within the school has to be continuously updated with the details of the notification requirement.