When did weaving become a male profession?

The article discusses the development and technological changes within weaving in the Middle Ages when it developed into a major craft and one of the most important industries of the Middle Ages in Northern Europe. While prehistoric weaving appears as a predominantly female work domain, weaving became a male profession in urban contexts, organised within guilds. Hence, it has almost become a dogma that the expanding medieval textile industry, and corresponding transition from a female to a male work domain, was caused by new technology – the horizontal treadle loom. By utilising various source categories, documentary, iconographic and archaeological evidence, the article substantiates that the conception of the medieval weaver as a male craftsman should be adjusted and the long-established dichotomy between male professional craftsmen and weavers, and women as homework producers of textiles should be modified, also when related to guilds. The change from a domestic household-based production to a more commercially based industry took place at different times and scales in various areas of Europe and did not only involve men

Experimental Study of the Wake Flow and Thrust Coefficient of Porous Actuator Discs

Masteroppgave i havteknologiHTEK3995MAMN-HTEKMAMN-HTE

Between a rock and a hard place : pressures reducing NGO managers' ability to analyze the effects of their organizations' financial transactions

The purpose of this research has been to study factors, both internal/organizational as well as external, that can reduce NGO managers’ ability to critically analyze the effects their organizations’ financial transactions can have in the contexts where they are operating. Literature suggests that an awareness of the political economy in the local settings is crucial to avoid potentially negative effects of the influx of resources that aid represents. Resources are prone to be exploited and when aid and resources is distributed in a careless manner, it can have detrimental effects. This study found that internal factors such as low, relevant experience of expatriate managers, high turnover and insufficient introduction programs within the studied NGOs, were factors reducing the managers’ ability to analyze the effects their organizations’ financial transactions had in the local context. Further, the study also found that there was an inherent conflict between the operational programs and administrative support units, a conflict that led to conflicts and tension on a regular basis. The pressures to deliver within the organizations, led to situations where the organizations’ rules and regulations, as well as the requirements laid down in contracts with donors, were broken on a regular basis. This would typically happen by bypassing procurement regulations and also window dressing, an activity involving production of documentation that would give the appearance that proper procedures had been followed. External pressure from donors was also found to reduce the analytic capacities of the NGOs. The study found that increasingly excessive reporting requirements would skew attention away from the NGOs’ obligation towards their beneficiaries. The increased focus on anti-corruption measure was also found to have unintended consequences. The study found that the way the donors’ “Zero-tolerance” policy was operationalized, actually gave strong disincentives against NGOs to detect and report corruption. Ironically, the study also found that despite the increasing administrative demands put on the NGO’s, the donors’ willingness to fund administrative functions was decreasing. The thesis concludes that the finding of internal pressures as well as the pressures from the donors, actually reduced the ability of the managers of NGOs to analyze the effects of their financial transactions.2018-05-15M-D

Experimental model of plug formation in subsea pipelines

Masteroppgåve i havteknologiHTEK3995MAMN-HTEKMAMN-HTE

Patients’ participation in decision-making in the medical field – ‘projectification’ of patients in a neoliberal framed healthcare system

This article focuses on patients’ participation in decision-making in meetings with healthcare professionals in a healthcare system, based on neoliberal regulations and ideas.Drawing on two constructed empirical cases, primarily from the perspective of patients, this article analyses and discusses the clinical practice around decision-making meetings within a Foucauldian perspective. Patients’ participation in decision-making can be seen as an offshoot of respect for patient autonomy. A treatment must be chosen, when patients consult physicians. From the perspective of patients, there is a tendency for healthcare professionals to supply the patients with the information that they think are necessary for them to make their own decision. But patients do not always want to be a ‘customer’ in the healthcare system; they want to be a patient, consulting an expert for help and advice,which creates resistance to some parts of the decision-making process. Both professionals and patients are subject to the structural frame of the medical field, formed of both neoliberal framework and medical logic. The decision-making competence in relation to the choice of treatment is placed away from the professionals and seen as belonging to the patient. A‘projectification’ of the patient occurs, whereby the patient becomes responsible for his/her choices in treatment and care and the professionals support him/her with knowledge, preferences, and alternative views, out of which he/she must make his/her own choices, and the responsibility for those choices now and in the future. At the same time, there is a tendency towards de-professionalization. In that light, participation of patients in decision-making can be regarded as a tacit governmentality strategy that shapes the location of responsibility between individual and society, and independent patients and healthcare professionals, despite the basically desirable, appropriate, and necessary idea of involving patients in their own situations from a humanistic perspective

Exploiting the potential of commercial digital holographic microscopy by combining it with 3D matrix cell culture assays

3D cell culture assays are becoming increasingly popular due to their higher resemblance to tissue environment. These provide an increased complexity compared to the growth on 2D surface and therefore allow studies of advanced cellular properties such as invasion. We report here on the use of 3D Matrigel cell preparations combined with a particular gentle and informative type of live-cell microscopy: quantitative digital holographic microscopy (DHM), here performed by a commercial software-integrated system, currently mostly used for 2D cell culture preparations. By demonstrating this compatibility, we highlight the possible time-efficient quantitative analysis obtained by using a commercial software-integrated DHM system, also for cells in a more advanced 3D culture environment. Further, we demonstrate two very different examples making use of this advantage by performing quantitative DHM analysis of: (1) wound closure cell monolayer Matrigel invasion assay and (2) Matrigel-trapped single and clumps of suspension cells. For both these, we benefited from the autofocus functionality of digital phase holographic imaging to obtain 3D information for cells migrating in a 3D environment. For the latter, we demonstrate that it is possible to quantitatively measure tumourigenic properties like growth of cell clump (or spheroid) over time, as well as single-cell invasion out of cell clump and into the surrounding extracellular matrix. Overall, our findings highlight several possibilities for 3D digital holographic microscopy applications combined with 3D cell preparations, therein studies of drug response or genetic alterations on invasion capacity as well as on tumour growth and metastasis.publishedVersio

Prosjektanalyse av Atlanterhavshotellet

Rapporten har hatt som utgangspunkt å analysere lønnsomheten av et planlagt hotellprosjekt kalt Atlanterhavshotellet i Kristiansund. Prosjektet eies i dag 50% av Hoemgruppen og 50% av en investeringspartner. Deler av prosjektet er planlagt å selges før realisering av prosjektet. Hotellet vil bli leid ut til en kjede som vil stå for driften. Analysens hovedmålsetting vil derfor være tredelt. Den vil analysere lønnsomheten for leietaker, investorene og Hoemgruppen. Oppgaven er delt i tre hoveddeler hvor den første analyserer hotellmarkedet i Kristiansund for å finne leietakers lønnsomhet, deretter benyttes dette til å finne investorenes lønnsomhet gitt av leiekontrakten, før rapporten avslutter med en analyse av Hoemgruppen hvor det fokuseres på lønnsomhet, bransjeeksponering, og prosjektets innvirkning på eksisterende portefølje. Lønnsomhet gitt fra nåverdimodellen gir positivt resultat for alle tre parter med leietaker som desidert mest lønnsom. Dette gir grunnlag for reforhandling av leieavtalen for å få en jevnere fordeling av prosjektets positive resultat

Wayfinding/Veifinning : Fysisk utforming av sykehjemsavdelinger for demente 14.01.19

The following paper investigated how the physical environment can support and help patients with dementia living in health institutions to easier find their way through the department. The study also explored if there are any elements in the physical environment can be helpful or harmful for patients with dementia? Gulstølstunet, a health institution for elderly, have painted the different departments in three different colours to make it easier for the residents to differentiate the areas. The colours of the wall in each corridor have also been painted so the colour becomes brighter as you get closer to the communal living room. A mixed-method was applied with a main focus on the qualitative data collection. 11 employees and the designer were interviewed, a short questionnaire to measure the residents ability to find their way through the environment rated by the employees was also included based on (Marquardt, 2009). Results indicate that painting the walls had no effect on the patients’ wayfinding ability. However, many of the participants expressed it was hard to measure whether or not the residents exhibit any difference in behaviour, but the new colour of the walls had a positive effect on the employees themselves