Following the leader: The role of the host nation President of Conferences of the Parties to the UNFCCC

In this thesis I investigate the role of formal leaders in international negotiations. I present theories on the role and influence formal leaders might have in international negotiations, and what variation in this role and influence might depend on. I then use this theoretical framework to analyse the role of the Presidents of the UN Climate Change Conferences in Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancún in 2010, how these differed, how they were perceived by observers such as the media and NGO representatives, and if their roles were perceived differently, what was their perception of the underlying factors causing this. I further analyse these images with the aid of my theoretical framework

Molecular structure and conformational composition of methyl chloroacetate: An electron-diffraction and ab initio molecular orbital investigation

The molecular structure and conformational composition of methyl chloroacetate, H2ClCC(O)OCH3, have been determined by gas-phase electron-diffraction (GED), using results from ab initio molecular orbital calculations (HF, MP2 and MP3/6-311+G(d,p)) to obtain constraints on some of the structural parameters. The molecules exist in the gas-phase at 25 °C as a mixture of two stable conformers: syn with CCl eclipsing CO and gauche with CH approximately eclipsing CO. In both of these conformers OCH3 is also eclipsing CO. The experimentally observed conformational composition at 25 °C was 36(8)% syn and 64(8)% gauche (parenthesised values are 2σ), corresponding to a free energy difference between conformers of = 1.4(9) kJ/mol. The corresponding theoretical values obtained for ΔG° are 1.1 kJ/mol (HF), 2.3 kJ/mol (MP2), and 2.4 kJ/mol (MP3). The results for the principal distances (rh1) and angles (h1) for the major gauche conformer obtained from the combined GED/ab initio study (2σ uncertainties) are r(COCCl) = 1.502(9) Å, r(CH) = 1.084(6) Å (average value), r(CCl) = 1.782(4) Å, r(CO) = 1.213(4) Å, r(COO) = 1.346(4) Å, r(CH3O) = 1.468(10) Å, CCCl = 110.0(6)°, CCO = 124.7(6)°, CCO = 108.3(10)°, COC = 115.9(8)°, (ClCCO) = 111(2)°, (COCO) = 3(3)°

On Distributed Cognition While Designing an AI System for Adapted Learning

When analyzing learning, focus has traditionally been on the teacher, but has in the recent decades slightly moved toward the learner. This is also reflected when supporting systems, both computer-based and more practical equipment, has been introduced. Seeing learning as an integration of both an internal psychological process of acquisition and elaboration, and an external interaction process between the learner and the rest of the learning environment though, we see the necessity of expanding the vision and taking on a more holistic view to include the whole learning environment. Specially, when introducing an AI (artificial intelligence) system for adapting the learning process to an individual learner through machine learning, this AI system should take into account both the learner and the other agents and artifacts being part of this extended learning system. This paper outlines some lessons learned in a process of developing an electronic textbook adapting to a single learner through machine learning, to the process of extracting input from and providing feedback both to the learner, the teacher, the learning institution, and the learning resources provider based on a XAI (explainable artificial intelligence) system while also taking into account characteristics with respect to the learner's peers

Abooks and the AIM project

During the last decades, learning has once again become a key topic. However, this time, not only for students and professors but also in political and economic contexts. One reason for this is that a high level of education and skills of nations, organizations, and individuals are considered both necessary and crucially competitive advantages in the present knowledge society and the globalized market. Therefore, obtaining a quality education is fundamental for all of us in today\u27s competitive business world. In particular, adult learning within the maritime sector has been important for the success of this industry for ages. The question now is how to streamline and facilitate the learning process for the learners, the lecturers, the authors, and the learning institutions. TERP has taken on the challenge of improving this learning process by introducing Abooks, electronic textbooks based on principles of pedagogy (the science of learning), and andragogy (the science of learning focusing on adults) that adapt to the learner through artificial intelligence. Abooks also introduces the opportunity of utilizing immersive techniques. This is being developed in the AIM project; Adapting to the Individual through Machine learning, a research project led by the research department in TERP in collaboration with the University of Stavanger and the Norwegian Computing Center

En kvalitativ undersøkelse av norske montessorielevers holdninger til matematikkfaget

Denne masteroppgaven tar utgangspunkt i forskningsspørsmålet: "Hva slags holdninger til matematikkfaget kan vi finne hos ungdomsskoleelever på norske montessoriskoler og hvordan vurderer og reflekterer de over sine egne holdninger?" For å svare på dette så har det blitt utført syv kvalitative intervjuer med syv ungdomskolelever fordelt på tre ulike norske montessoriskoler. Igjennom oppgavens teoridel så redegjør jeg for hovedsakelig tre ulike modeller for holdning som alle vurderer holdning fra ulike teoretiske og forskningsmessige utgangspunkt: McLeods (1992) modell av det affektive domenet, Den tredimensjonale modell for holdning (Di Martino & Zan, 2009), og Hannulas (2002) rammeverk for matematisk holdning. Jeg tar også for meg forskning knyttet til lærere og foreldres rolle i elevens holdningsutvikling. Metoden for innhenting av empiri har vært kvalitative intervjuer hvor ungdomsskoleelever fra montessoriskoler har blitt intervjuet om deres holdninger til matematikkfaget. Intervjuene har blitt bearbeidet med hjelp av SDI-metoden og resultatene presentert etter fire hovedtemaer som dukket opp i intervjuene: (1) Tegn til matematisk holdning, (2) Refleksjoner rundt egen holdning til matematikk, (3) Refleksjoner rundt foreldre og lærere og (4) Læringsmiljøet på montessoriskolen. Resultatene og oppgavens konklusjon viser til at elevene viser alle ulike holdninger til matematikkfaget og har alle ulike refleksjoner knyttet opp til det. Av disse så var det ett par elementer av holdningen deres som var sterkere enn andre: Elevenes verdisyn av matematikk som personlig viktig for deres egen fremtid og historier de hadde som de selv reflekterte som viktige momenter i livene deres og som har ført til den holdningen de hadde i dag. I tillegg var også deres foreldre og lærere viktige deltagere i deres egen holdning til matematikk.This master's thesis is based on the research question: "What kind of attitudes towards the subject of mathematics can we find in secondary school students at Norwegian Montessori schools and how do they assess and reflect on their own attitudes?" To answer this, seven qualitative interviews have been conducted with seven secondary school students distributed across three different Norwegian Montessori schools. Through the theory part of the thesis, I explain mainly three different models for attitude that all assess attitude from different theoretical and research specific points of view: McLeod's (1992) model of the affective domain, The three-dimensional model for attitude (Di Martino & Zan, 2009), and Hannula's (2002) framework for mathematical attitude. I also present research related to the role of teachers and parents in the development of student’s attitudes. The method for obtaining empirical evidence has been a series of qualitative interviews where secondary school students from Montessori schools have been interviewed about their attitudes towards mathematics. The interviews have been processed using the SDI method and the results presented according to four main themes that emerged in the interviews: (1) Signs of mathematical attitude, (2) Reflections on own attitude to mathematics, (3) Reflections on parents and teachers and (4) The learning environment at the Montessori school. The results and the conclusion of the assignment show that the students show all different attitudes towards the subject of mathematics and have all different reflections linked to it. Of these, there were a couple of elements of their attitude that were stronger than others: The students view of the value of mathematics as personally important for their own future and stories they had which they themselves reflected on as important moments in their lives and which have led to the attitude they had today. In addition, their parents and teachers were also strongly reflected on as important participants in their attitude to mathematics

Unsupervised energy disaggregation via convolutional sparse coding

In this work, a method for unsupervised energy disaggregation in private households equipped with smart meters is proposed. This method aims to classify power consumption as active or passive, granting the ability to report on the residents' activity and presence without direct interaction. This lays the foundation for applications like non-intrusive health monitoring of private homes. The proposed method is based on minimizing a suitable energy functional, for which the iPALM (inertial proximal alternating linearized minimization) algorithm is employed, demonstrating that various conditions guaranteeing convergence are satisfied. In order to confirm feasibility of the proposed method, experiments on semi-synthetic test data sets and a comparison to existing, supervised methods are provided.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Ragnhild Aslaug Sollund (red.): Transnational Migration, Gender and Rights.

I en verden med økende bevegelse fra fattige og konfliktfylte områder i sør til velstående og fredelige nord, søker mottakerland måter å begrense og kontrollere migrasjon. Dette gir en situasjon hvor noen migranter fremstår som mer attraktive og velkomne, mens andre opplever stadig økende restriksjoner som hindrer deres bevegelser. Dette er utgangspunktet for boken Transnational Migration, Gender and Rights. Boken springer ut av behovet for å forstå forholdet mellom mottakerlands interesser og forpliktelser på den ene siden og migranters rettigheter og behov på den andre. Den bygger dessuten på de siste 10-20 årenes erkjennelse av at migrasjon er kjønnet og at et kjønnsperspektiv er nødvendig for å forstå årsaker til og konsekvenser av migrasjon

Current clinical criteria for Lynch syndrome are not sensitive enough to identify MSH6 mutation carriers

Background: Reported prevalence, penetrance and expression of deleterious mutations in the mismatch repair (MMR) genes, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2, may reflect differences in the clinical criteria used to select families for DNA testing. The authors have previously reported that clinical criteria are not sensitive enough to identify MMR mutation carriers among incident colorectal cancer cases. Objective: To describe the sensitivity of the criteria when applied to families with a demonstrated MMR mutation. Methods: Families with an aggregation of colorectal cancers were examined for deleterious MMR mutations according to the Mallorca guidelines. All families with a detected MMR mutation as of November 2009 were reclassified according to the Amsterdam and Bethesda criteria. Results: Sixty-nine different DNA variants were identified in a total of 129 families. The original Amsterdam clinical criteria were met by 38%, 12%, 78% and 25% of families with mutations in MSH2, MSH6, MLH1 and PMS2, respectively. Corresponding numbers for the revised Amsterdam criteria were 62%, 48%, 87% and 38%. Similarly, each of the four clinical Bethesda criteria had low sensitivity for identifying MSH6 or PMS2 mutations. Conclusion: Amsterdam criteria and each of the Bethesda criteria were inadequate for identifying MSH6 mutation-carrying kindreds. MSH6 mutations may be more common than currently assumed, and the penetrance/expression of MSH6 mutations, as derived from families meeting current clinical criteria, may be misleading. To increase detection rate of MMR mutation carriers, all cancers in the Lynch syndrome tumour spectrum should be subjected to immunohistochemical analysis and/or analysis for microsatellite instability