Experience and Identity : A Historical Account of Class, Caste, and Gender among the Cashew Workers of Kerala, 1930–2000

Since the 1930s female cashew workers have constituted a majority of the registered workers in the South Indian State of Kerala and today number some 200,000. This group challenged the stereotypical view of Third World women because they were organized into unions, worked in the formal sector, and were literate. The background for this thesis has been the ?Kerala Model?, i.e., the political context of a state known for its radicalism, redistribution of resources, and high social indicators for citizens (men as well as women). How did the encounter of women of different castes at the cashew factory take place? How was the factory work structured with regard to gender and caste? How did membership in unions shape women's view of their own lives? How have marriage and motherhood influenced their identities? Why did females suffer more pronounced capitalist exploitation than males? At a theoretical level this interdisciplinary study engages in a dialogue with Marxist, Subaltern, postmodern, and feminist scholars. In the analysis, change and continuity have been considered not only with regard to material ?realities?, but also in terms of discourses and ideologies. Among the main themes traced over the period 1930-2000 are the organization of work in the factories, wages, trade unions, and marriage; and how elements in these spheres have interacted in the formation of identities based on class, caste, and gender. The limitations imposed upon female laborers by poverty and extremely unequal power relations between capital and labor alone cannot adequately account for the discriminatory treatment of female workers over males. Neither can women's lack of class-consciousness serve as a justification. The story of the Kerala cashew workers chronicles not only shameless, brutal capitalist exploitation, but also demonstrates that we have to go beyond economic structures to explain oppression and lack of empowerment: cultural and ideological factors must be incorporated in the analysis. Low-caste female workers have gone through a process of effeminization which has acted to curb their class-identity and limit their scope of action. The historical development traced shows a widening gap between femininity and masculinity, with a more dichotomized gender ideology visible among low-caste cashew workers. While it does not mean to imply a deterioration of living conditions for women, it should not be taken as idealizing a better and more gender-equal past; rather, it seeks to highlight the complexity of historical analysis. The thesis has striven to show that, once one takes a gender perspective, a polarization such as ?traditional? or ?modern? is seen as flawed. Capitalist forces were active in spreading a patriarchal, high-caste gender ideology among lower castes, who were seen to ?modernize? their gender relations by introducing male breadwinners and dependent housewives as the ideal. Union leaders themselves ?modernized? gender relations by supporting an internationally-acknowledged wage system which was institutionalized by the minimum wages committees in 1953 and 1959. This study shows that the radicalism of males turned to be built upon women's maintaining of the families-a reality which strongly contradicts hegemonic gender discourses and confuses gender identities

Hur och varför avlivas hästar i Sverige?

Horses (Equus caballus) were domesticated around 6000 years ago, before that, wild horses were used as food resource for humans. Today, the horse is a popular companion animal used in many different training- and competition disciplines and a major leisure interest for many people. Horse owners have a duty to ensure that the horse is not exposed to unnecessary pain or suffering, such as severe and non-treatable disease or injury. If they are, this could lead to a decision of euthanasia. Sweden has a strong tradition and legislation on animal welfare and euthanasia can be seen as part of this. Injuries, age, accidents and various medical conditions are common reasons for the horse to be euthanised. In this study, telephone interviews were conducted with professional drivers from Svensk Lantbrukstjänst AB, a company that works with euthanasia of horses and other livestock. Telephone interviews were also conducted with selected organisations within the horse industry, that in various ways come in contact with owners in need of putting their horse down. The purpose of this study was to answer questions regarding how and why horses are euthanised in Sweden and to map the knowledge from the perspective of animal welfare as well as describing the horse owners´ perspective. Selected questions were asked to the respondents, who replied based on their own experiences and expertise within their field. This study highlights that the most common methods of euthanising horses are with a penetrating captive bolt device with subsequent bleeding or by medical injection. Besides the drivers, veterinarians and some farriers also perform euthanasia and it is important that the horse is handled calmly to minimise the risk of accidents during the procedure. To the horse owners, it can be a heavy and difficult decision to be made when it comes to putting a horse down, something all respondents in the study agreed on. As previous studies have not included professional drivers who work with euthanising horses, further studies may be needed. This should be done in order to maintain good animal welfare and ensure compliance with the legislation when it comes to horse euthanasia, as the professional´s knowledge and competence play an important role from an animal welfare legislation point of view, as well as of the horse owners

Raision kaupungin perhepalveluiden kehittämistyö : intensiivisen työmuodon sisällyttäminen osaksi perhetyön palvelutarjontaa

Kehittämistyön toimeksiantajana toimi Raision perhepalvelut ja työn tavoitteena oli luoda tiiviissä yhteistyössä perhepalveluiden moniammatillisen tiimin kanssa perusta uudenlaiselle työmuodolle. Kehitettävällä työmuodolla tähdätään varhaisen vuorovaikutuksen tukemiseen pikkulapsiperheissä intensiivisesti ja ryhmämuotoisesti. Kehittämistyön menetelminä hyödynnettiin osallistavaa sitouttavaa kartoitusta, selvitystyötä, kokeilevaa toimintaa, strukturoituja kokouksia sekä läpi prosessin kulkenutta dialogista ja reflektiivistä keskustelua. Kehittämistyö eteni suunnittelun, käytännön kokeilun ja toiminnan uudelleen suuntaamisen kautta kohti lopullisia toimeksiantajalle luovutettavia tuotoksia. Työn tuotoksena syntyi perheryhmän jatkokehittelyn tueksi kaksi välinettä, jotka ovat ryhmän uudelleen käynnistämistä edesauttava materiaalipankki sekä kuvaus intensiivisen työmuodon prosessista. Työmuodon kuvaus koostui itse prosessin kuvauksesta sekä kehittämistyön jatkon kannalta olennaisista kehitysideoista ja ehdotuksista.The client for the project was Raisio family services and the objective of the work was to create a new form of work in co-operation with the multiprofessional team of family services. The developed form of work focuses on supporting early interaction in families with small children in an intensive group format. The methods that were applied consisted of inclusive engaging screening, inquiry work, piloting action, structured meetings and dialogic and reflective conversation throughout the process. The project went through planning, practical testing and re-orientation of activities to the final output given to the client. The result of the work yielded two tools for further developing the group for families. These include a material bank to aid restarting the group and a description of the process of the intensive form of work. The description consisted of a description of the process and essential ideas and suggestions for continuing the project

Could gender equality in parental leave harm off-springs' mental health? A registry study of the Swedish parental/child cohort of 1988/89

INTRODUCTION: Mental ill-health among children and young adults is a growing public health problem and research into causes involves consideration of family life and gender practice. This study aimed at exploring the association between parents' degree of gender equality in childcare and children's mental ill-health. METHODS: The population consisted of Swedish parents and their firstborn child in 1988-1989 (N = 118 595 family units) and the statistical method was multiple logistic regression. Gender equality of childcare was indicated by the division of parental leave (1988-1990), and child mental ill-health was indicated by outpatient mental care (2001-2006) and drug prescription (2005-2008), for anxiety and depression. RESULTS: The overall finding was that boys with gender traditional parents (mother dominance in childcare) have lower risk of depression measured by outpatient mental care than boys with gender-equal parents, while girls with gender traditional and gender untraditional parents (father dominance in childcare) have lower risk of anxiety measured by drug prescription than girls with gender-equal parents. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that unequal parenting regarding early childcare, whether traditional or untraditional, is more beneficial for offspring's mental health than equal parenting. However, further research is required to confirm our findings and to explore the pathways through which increased gender equality may influence child health

Regimes of the World (RoW): Opening New Avenues for the Comparative Study of Political Regimes

Classifying political regimes has never been more difficult. Most contemporary regimes hold de-jure multiparty elections with universal suffrage. In some countries, elections ensure that political rulers are - at least somewhat - accountable to the electorate whereas in others they are a mere window dressing exercise for authoritarian politics. Hence, regime types need to be distinguished based on the de-facto implementation of democratic institutions and processes. Using V-Dem data, we propose with Regimes of the World (RoW) such an operationalization of four important regime types - closed and electoral autocracies; electoral and liberal democracies - with vast coverage (almost all countries from 1900 to 2016). We also contribute a solution to a fundamental weakness of extant typologies: The unknown extent of misclassification due to uncertainty from measurement error. V-Dem's measures of uncertainty (Bayesian highest posterior densities) allow us to be the first to provide a regime typology that distinguishes cases classified with a high degree of certainty from those with "upper" and "lower" bounds in each category. Finally, a comparison of disagreements with extant datasets (7%-12% of the country-years), demonstrates that the RoW classification is more conservative, classifying regimes with electoral manipulation and infringements of the political freedoms more frequently as electoral autocracies, suggesting that it better captures the opaqueness of contemporary autocracies

Regimes of the World (RoW): Opening New Avenues for the Comparative Study of Political Regimes

Classifying political regimes has never been more difficult. Most contemporary regimes hold de-jure multiparty elections with universal suffrage. In some countries, elections ensure that political rulers are—at least somewhat—accountable to the electorate whereas in others they are a mere window dressing exercise for authoritarian politics. Hence, regime types need to be distinguished based on the de-facto implementation of democratic institutions and processes. Using V-Dem data, we propose with Regimes of the World (RoW) such an operationalization of four important regime types—closed and electoral autocracies; electoral and liberal democracies—with vast coverage (almost all countries from 1900 to 2016). We also contribute a solution to a fundamental weakness of extant typologies: The unknown extent of misclassification due to uncertainty from measurement error. V-Dem’s measures of uncertainty (Bayesian highest posterior densities) allow us to be the first to provide a regime typology that distinguishes cases classified with a high degree of certainty from those with “upper” and “lower” bounds in each category. Finally, a comparison of disagreements with extant datasets (7%–12% of the country-years), demonstrates that the RoW classification is more conservative, classifying regimes with electoral manipulation and infringements of the political freedoms more frequently as electoral autocracies, suggesting that it better captures the opaqueness of contemporary autocracies

Suomen puutteellisesti tunnetut maksasammalsuvut: siiransammalet Nardia,rahtusammalet Cephaloziella ja pihtisammalet Cephalozia

Tämä julkaisu on tuotettu osana Ympäristöministeriön rahoittamaa PUTTE-tutkimusohjelmaa (Puutteellisesti tunnettujen ja uhanalaisten metsälajien tutkimusohjelma), josta saimme kaudella 2009-2011 3-vuotisen rahoituksen eräiden puutteellisesti tunnettujen maksasammalten levinneisyyden ja taksonomian nykytilanteen selvittämistä varten. Tutkimusohjelma on osa Etelä-Suomen metsien suojeluohjelmaa (METSO), jonka tavoitteena on lisätä metsälajiston ja metsäisten luontotyyppien suojeluastetta Etelä-Suomessa mm. vahvistamalla lajintuntemuksen tietopohjaa. Julkaisun tavoite on helpottaa pienten, vaikeasti havaittavien ja määritettävien maksasammallajien tunnistamista ja parantaa sukujen siiransammalet Nardia, rahtusammalet Cephaloziella ja pihtisammalet Cephalozia lajintuntemusta. Sukujen lajeista monet kasvavat esimerkiksi lahopuulla. Julkaisussa esitetään näiden sukujen ajantasaiset, suomenkieliset määrityskaavat. Sukuihin liittyy runsaasti taksonomista epäselvyyttä lajitasolla sekä puutteellisia levinneisyystietoja. Tässä esitettävät määrityskaavat koostettiin kirjallisuuden ja omien havaintojemme pohjalta. Lisäksi taustamateriaalina käytettiin Suomen luonnontieteellisten kokoelmien aineistoja. Suomen alueella esiintyvästä muuntelusta saatiin näin kattava aineisto, mikä parantaa kaavojen käytettävyyttä. Suvuista on julkaisussa esitetty kuvaukset, määrityskaavat sekä tarkemmat lajikuvaukset. Kustakin lajista on pyritty esittämään sekä valokuva että piirroskuvat versosta (habitus), lehdestä ja solukosta. Julkaisuun on laadittu piirroskuvat myös muista määrityksen kannalta olennaisista morfologisista yksityiskohdista. Julkaisussa annetaan myös ohjeet sammalnäytteiden keräämistä ja käsittelyä varten. Määrityskaavoista ja julkaisusta tehtiin mahdollisimman selkeät ja helppolukuiset, ja ne soveltuvat niin ammattilais- kuin harrastajakäyttöönkin. Tärkeänä tavoitteenamme on lisätä sammaliin kohdistuvaa mielenkiintoa ja madaltaa kynnystä niihin perehtymisessä. Hankkeemme paljasti myös lisää sukujen taksonomiaan liittyviä tutkimustarpeita

Automation of cDNA Synthesis and Labelling Improves Reproducibility

Background. Several technologies, such as in-depth sequencing and microarrays, enable large-scale interrogation of genomes and transcriptomes. In this study, we asses reproducibility and throughput by moving all laboratory procedures to a robotic workstation, capable of handling superparamagnetic beads. Here, we describe a fully automated procedure for cDNA synthesis and labelling for microarrays, where the purification steps prior to and after labelling are based on precipitation of DNA on carboxylic acid-coated paramagnetic beads. Results. The fully automated procedure allows for samples arrayed on a microtiter plate to be processed in parallel without manual intervention and ensuring high reproducibility. We compare our results to a manual sample preparation procedure and, in addition, use a comprehensive reference dataset to show that the protocol described performs better than similar manual procedures. Conclusions. We demonstrate, in an automated gene expression microarray experiment, a reduced variance between replicates, resulting in an increase in the statistical power to detect differentially expressed genes, thus allowing smaller differences between samples to be identified. This protocol can with minor modifications be used to create cDNA libraries for other applications such as in-depth analysis using next-generation sequencing technologies

Finansieringsstrukturen i nystartade företag - En undersökning av teknikutvecklingsföretag baserade i forskningsparken Ideon

Titel: Finansieringsstrukturen i nystartade företag - en undersökning av teknikutvecklingsföretag baserade i forskningsparken Ideon Ämne/Kurs: FEKN90 Examensarbete Magisternivå, 30 högskolepoäng Datum: 2014-05-16 Författare: Rebecca Lindberg och Anna Tunberg Handledare: Claes Svensson Nyckelord: Finansieringsstruktur, Kapitalstruktur, Pecking order-teorin, Små nystartade teknikutvecklingsföretag, Finansiell Bootstrapping Syfte: Studiens syfte är att generera en utvecklad Pecking order-teori för finansieringsstrukturen i nystartade teknikutvecklingsföretag. Metod: Kvantitativ metod med datainsamling genom enkäter till teknikutvecklingsföretag startade i Ideon, Lund. Kvalitativa inslag genom en explorativ pilotstudie i form av intervjuer. Teoretiska perspektiv: Studien är baserad på teoretiska ansatser och metoder inom ramen för finansieringsstruktur. Empiri: Empirin består av enkät- och intervjusvar från företagsledningen på teknikutvecklingsföretag från forskningsparken Ideon i Lund. Slutsatser: Pecking order-teorins stämmer inte överens med hur företagsledare i små nystartade teknikutvecklingsföretag väljer finansieringsalternativ. Förslag till en utvecklad pecking order-teori har framställts.Abstract Title: The financial structure in early stage companies - a survey of technology-based firms in Ideon Science Park Course: FEKN90 Degree Project Master Level in Business Administration, 30 university points (ECTS) Date: 2014-05-16 Authors: Rebecca Lindberg and Anna Tunberg Advisor: Claes Svensson Key words: Financial structure, Capital structure, Pecking order-theory, New technology-based firms, Financial bootstrapping Purpose: The purpose of the study is to generate a new Pecking order-theory in regard to the financial structure in new technology-based firms. Methodology: Quantitative methods with data collection through surveys to technology-based firms first based in Ideon, Lund. Qualitative features through an exploratory pilot study conducted through interviews. Theoretical perspectives: The study is based on theoretical approaches and methods in the context of capital structure. Empirical foundation: The empirical data consists of responses from surveys and interviews from business managers in technology-based firms in Ideon Science Park in Lund. Conclusion: The Pecking order theory is not consistent with how business leaders in new technology-based firms choose financing options. A proposal for a developed Pecking order theory has been produced

Ätstörningar hos unga med diabetes mellitus typ 1- En litteraturstudie

Utvecklandet av diabetes och ätstörningar sammanfaller ofta kring pubertetsåldern hos både unga kvinnor och män. Då prevalensen av både diabetes typ 1 och ätstörningar ökar kan det vara intressant att studera ett eventuellt samband. Syftet med studien var att sammanställa forskningsresultat kring ätstörningar hos unga personer med diabetes mellitus typ 1. Studien genomfördes som en litteraturstudie baserad på 10 vetenskapliga artiklar. Artiklarna analyserades med utgångspunkt från analysmodell för kvantitativa artiklar samt delar av analysmodell för litteraturöversikt. Analysen resulterade i sju olika relevanta ämnesområden, varav tre stycken lyftes som huvudfynd i diskussionsdelen. Det första var att det är vanligare med ätstörningar och stört ätbeteende hos unga med diabetes typ 1 jämfört med de utan. Nästa fynd som lyftes fram var att unga med diabetes typ 1 använder sig av avsiktlig insulinbegränsning för viktkontroll. Det sista centrala fyndet var att ungdomar som får diabetes i åldrarna 7-18 år i större utsträckning drabbas av ätstörningar jämfört med de som får sin diabetes senare. Ökad kunskap och förståelse för dessa fynd kan bidra till att minska risken för att unga personer med diabetes typ 1 ska utveckla ätstörningar