Digital symbolic arenas. Reinventing youth identity and emerging forms of play.

This thesis will ethnographically analyze the interrelationships between gender, class, and subcultural styles using different video gaming groups primarily located in Bergen, Norway. I will discuss the structures of the groups and the video-game organizations that they participate in so as to examine how the games fit in with the players’ wider social and cultural life. The digital gaming scene provides a new arena for the articulation and reinvention of youth identity in its various contemporary forms. Alongside the game itself other things are being played out, such as cultural-social experimentations in social relations, forms of communication, and symbolic iconography. I unpack the interplay between users and technology by studying how game design works through its ability to organize aesthetics, narratives, and reward structures within virtual worlds. The genre preferences and gaming habits of different individuals are analyzed so as to examine the varying degrees of devotion to a game and indeed sometimes addiction to it. The increased accessibility of digital games has transformed the sociocultural context surrounding gaming activities making it part of new forms of mass consumption. New marketing strategies and ways of generating revenue are emerging, most prominently often employing chance-based game rewards that sometimes obscure the line between gaming and gambling. Due to increased consumer possession of technological devices, such as personal computers, gaming systems, and smartphones, the gaming market has become highly lucrative, for advertisers, those selling goods and for game developers. The later rely increasingly not on large single initial purchases but a continual stream of seemingly small insignificant purchases that often promise participation in the chance to win something big and in doing so further blurring the lines between gaming and gambling.MasteroppgaveSANT350MASV-SAN

Urimelig liberal : en kritikk av John Rawls teori om rettferdighet

Oppgaven handler om Rawls "theory of justice". Jeg har lagt vekt på teorien som en verdinøytral prosedyre. Jeg kritiserer ulikhetsprinsippet for at det tillater forskjeller som er så store at de underminerer verdien av de politiske frihetene. Videre viser jeg hvordan mennesker er avhengige av å bekreftes gjennom gjensidige relasjoner av anerkjennelse. Rawls begrep om selvrespekt er utilstrekkelig og han kan derfor ikke sikre borgernes autonomi

Investigating the Impact of Susceptibility Artifacts on Adjacent Tumors in PET/MRI through Simulated Tomography Experiments

For quantitative PET imaging, attenuation correction (AC) is mandatory. Currently, all main vendors of hybrid PET/MRI systems apply a segmentation-based approach to compute a Dixon AC-map based on fat and water images derived from in- and opposed-phase MR-images. Changes in magnetic susceptibility pose major problems for MRI, which may lead to artifacts resulting in tissue misclassification in the segmented AC-map. Cases have been reported where the liver has been misidentified as lung tissue due to iron overload, e.g. from hemochromatosis or iron oxide MR contrast agents, resulting in severe underestimation of PET-quantification. In this thesis, simulated tomography experiments were conducted to investigate the impact of susceptibility artifacts on adjacent tumors, focusing on the misclassification of liver tissue as lung tissue. A digital phantom was programmed, and synthetic tumors and artifacts were introduced into a realistic PET/MRI patient dataset. The data were reconstructed with attenuation maps both with and without artifacts to compute the relative error (RE) in tumor uptake. It was shown that relevant errors can be introduced to tumors adjacent to the artifact. A strong inverse square relationship between the distance (d) of the center points of a tumor and an artifact was found with the RE. Further, because the RE was known to be proportional to the volume (V) of misclassified tissue, it was shown that it is possible to obtain a linear equation describing the RE using only V and d. However, this assumes similar information, i.e activity and attenuation, along the common line of responses (LORs) of the artifact and tumor. A correction method was developed to correct for lung-liver misclassifications. The proposed method uses the already acquired opposed-phase Dixon images, which are less sensitive to susceptibility changes. It successfully corrected 96% of misclassified tissue down to a 50% MR-signal reduction from the liver. The method benefits from using already acquired data to correct the artifacts, and may be made fully automatic to function in real-time

Micro- and nano-analyses of fracture-filling after flooding on-shore chalk with different IOR fluids

Master's thesis in Petroleum Geosciences EngineeringWater injection into the Ekofisk-reservoir was introduced in 1987 to enhance oil recovery (EOR) dissolution and precipitation by exposing chalk to various brines at reservoir conditions, which further increased deformation of chalk matrix. This deformation affected mechanical properties of the tested samples and is referred to as water weakening of chalk. This thesis has focused on identifying mineral changes and mapping the distribution of precipitated mineral during flooding of samples which have an artificial fracture and will compare hollow cylinder to intact chalk cores. Methods used to achieve a mineralogic map are: • Optical Light Microscopy (OLM) • Light microscopy (LM) • X-ray diffraction (XRD) • Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) • Focused Ion Beam (FIB) sample for Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) • Mineral Liberation Analyzer (MLA) All cores tested, either intact or hollow and representing all combinations of brine injected, distributed an increased abundance of chlorite. The most sensational observation was the precipitation of magnesite inside the core of the hollow cylinder flooded by MgCl2, and the distinct boundary that this distribution created. Ilmenite was also observed at the same location, while calcite was limited to the matrix itself. Pyrite was not observed in the reference rock, but this was however identified in cores flooded by both MgCl2 and SSW. One non-fractured core injected by SSW experienced clogging after 20 days of flooding. The two samples from this core provided similar composition as the reference rock, hence the reduction of permeability was related to the composition of the brine (SSW) as the comparable core injected with MgCl2 experienced a more dramatic calcite dissolution. This core that clogged also experienced a rapid creep phase and imply that pores could have been clogged solely due to the compression and dissolution of grain to grain contacts during flooding. These results, among others, allows an interpretation that dissolution of original grains and distribution of precipitated minerals is dependent on a variety of processes. The type of brine injected, distribution of porous network and the distance from the inlet are essential parameter which affect the precipitation in the hollow core, so verified in this study. The reactivity and the content of silicate and clay minerals may also influence the process

Sámi ecotheology as a resource for the church of Norway

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.In several church declarations dating as far back as the 1990s, it is stated that Sámi spirituality provides an important impulse for churches that want to develop ecotheology. In this article, I examine how two well-known Sámi priests, Bierna Leine Bientie and Tore Johnsen, have received this encouragement and what characterizes their ecotheological responses. By studying selected publications from these two, using established methods for the analysis of ecotheological texts, I show that they present an ecotheology that places more emphasis on building ecocentric worldviews than on promoting concrete solutions. This stands in contrast to the dominant theology in the Church of Norway, which places great emphasis on ethics in its statements. I conclude that Sámi theologians, measured against the findings in this analysis, challenge the church of Norway and other western churches to focus more on the connection between humans and other species and on the value of non-human nature in future ecotheological statements.publishedVersio

Analyse av porteføljesammensetninger : med utgangspunkt i aksjeforvaltningen til Statens Pensjonsfond – Utland

Utgangspunktet for utredningen var endringen i den strategiske referanseindeksen for aksjer til Statens pensjonsfond – Utland (SPU). Referanseindeksen har gått fra å være regionsvektet til å bli markedsverdivektet. Vi begynner oppgaven med enn gjennomgang av utviklingen i investeringsstrategien samtidig som vi ser nærmere på argumentene for de tidligere regionsvektene og de nåværende markedsvektene. I utredningen så vi på geometrisk gjennomsnittlig avkastning og standardavvik til ulike globale porteføljer i perioden 1989-2012. Vi konstruerte totalt åtte ulike porteføljer basert på markedsverdivekter, bruttonasjonalproduktvekter, importvekter, regionsvekter, like vekter, risk cluster equal weight, equal risk budget og minimum varians vekter. Vi fant at porteføljene i stor grad varierer med tanke på geometrisk gjennomsnittlig avkastning og standardavvik, men fant ikke noe åpenbart eller konsistent bytteforhold. I likhet med NBIM Discussion Note (#7, 2012), MSCI (2012) og Chow et al. (2011) fant vi at den globale markedsverdivektede porteføljen ga et forhold mellom geometrisk gjennomsnittlig avkastning og standardavvik som var blant de dårligste. Dette resultatet var uavhengig av om vi så på nominell eller realavkastning i lokal valuta eller nominell avkastning i norske kroner og nominell avkastning i amerikanske dollar. Av porteføljene vi så på var likt vektet, equal risk budget og global minimum varians porteføljen de som hadde det beste forholdet mellom geometrisk gjennomsnittlig avkastning og standardavvik. I slutten av utredningen så vi på hvordan de ulike formene for porteføljekonstruksjon passer for SPU med tanke på avkastning, risiko og investeringskapasitet. I denne delen prøvde vi å nyansere risikobildet til de ulike porteføljene utover standardavvik. Etter vår mening er det ikke åpenbart at en markedsverdivektet portefølje er den meste egnede for SPU, samtidig er det ikke lett å identifisere alternative former regelstyrt porteføljevekting som gir et klart bedre alternativ

Why do people participate in research interviews? Participant orientations and ethical contracts in interviews with victims of interpersonal violence

Researchers are increasingly interested in why people want to participate in qualitative interview studies, particularly what they hope to gain from participating. The present paper contributes to this research agenda by analyzing the motivations of victims of interpersonal violence: a group that is considered ethically challenging to involve in research, given their history of being intruded upon. The analysis is based on 174 qualitative interviews from three separate studies: two on intimate partner violence and one on sexual assault. A key finding is that many victims welcome the opportunity to participate and often use the interviews for their own purposes. We identified three different ‘participant orientations’, or ways victims relate to the interview and the research, including ‘telling for oneself’, ‘telling for others’ and ‘telling for the researcher’. We discuss how these orientations imply different ethical contracts between the participant and researcher and their links to recruitment methods.publishedVersio

Henrik "Sjøfareren": Konstruksjon og dekonstruksjon av prins Henrik av Portugal i historiske arbeider.

Dette prosjektet har tatt sikte på å spore endringer i portretteringen av prins Henrik av Portugal, i kontekst av den portugisiske ekspansjonen på 1400-tallet. Litteraturen som er brukt i oppgaven menes å være et representativt utvalg av historikere, som alle har behandlet temaet over en periode av tid. De 3 hovedverkene som er brukt er alle engelskspråklige, og analysen av disse er supplert med en kortere analyse av nordiske verk. Av historiske kilder er det brukt en engelsk oversettelse av en portugisisk krønike fra 1453. Man ser utviklingen av to leirer når det kommer til behandlingen av prins Henrik. Den ene leiren, "konstruksjonistene", som vil bevare mystikken og mytene som omhandler prinsen historien har døpt "Henrik Sjøfareren", og en leir, "de-konstruksjonistene", som vil gjenvinne den historiske prinsen av Portugal, fri for mystikk og på et personlig nivå. Som antatt ser man en økning av sistnevnte i takt med utviklingen av historiefaget mot moderne tid. Særlig hovedverkene viser store forskjeller i behandlingen av prinsen fra 1895 - 2000. De mer moderne verkene har som kjent fordelen av historisk distanse, og kan dra fordel av nyere kildefunn og en mer velutviklet forskningsfront. Samtidig kan man ikke undervurdere det historiografiske aspektet, hvor man må prøve å forstå historikerens arbeid i forhold til hans egen samtid. Det vil argumenteres for at nedrivningen av den mystiske karakteren "Henrik Sjøfareren" er tett sammenknyttet utviklingen av det profesjonaliserte historiefaget. Mer bevissthet på kildekritikk, en større forskningsfront, og et økt behov for å svare på transnasjonale-, politiske- og geopolitiske problemstillinger. Til tross for at mange av mytene som omhandler prinsen er forsøkt motbevist, vil hans betydning for den portugisiske ekspansjonen fortsatt bli diskutert. Det virker urealistisk å snakke om en overgående konsensus om prinsen, mytisk eller ikke. Til det er det for stor avstand i formidlingsønskene og kildebruk hos den moderne historikeren, selv i 2015.Este projeto tem como meta rastrear as mudanças na representação do principe Henrique de portugal, em contexto da expansão portuguesa em 1400. A literatura usada neste projeto é baseada nas idéas dos historiadores que avaliavaram e estudaram esse tema ao decorrer dos anos. As tres obras principais utilizadas nesse trablhos são escritas na língua inglesa, suplementados por curtas analises escritos em línguas nordicas. Das fontes historicas usadas encontra-se uma traducao inglesa de uma cronica portuguêsa de 1453. A formação de duas escolas de pensamento surgiram no tratamento do príncipe Henrique. A primeira, ´´construcionista ´´´preserva a mística e mitos ao redor do príncipe que a história batizou ´´Infante de Sagres´´ ou ´´O navegador´´, a segunda, ´´descontrucionista´´ reclama o historico príncipe de Portugal livre de misticas pessoais. Como esperado, vemos o aumento da segunda escola de pensamento, descontrucionista, com o desenvolvimento do estudos historico feito nos tempos modernos. Especialmente grandes obras mostram diferenças na interpretacao do príncipe entre 1895 e 2000. Literatura moderna tem como vantagem o distanciamento historico dos fatos, e acesso a novas descobertas historicas e uma frante de pesquisas mais bem desenvolvida. Ao mesmo tempo, não se pode subestimar o apecto hitoriográfico, aonde a interpretacao do contexto dos historiadores em relacao e sua própria época e importante. É aqui argumentado que a demolição do personagem misterioso "Henrique, o Navegador" está intimamente associado com o desenvolvimento e professionalização do estudo da história, ciência crítica sobre as fontes, uma maior frente de pesquisa, e o aumento da necessidade de responder questões trans-nacionais, políticas e geo-políticas. Apesar do fato de que muito mitos sobre o príncipe foram desmentidos, sua importância para a expanção ainda é discutida. Parece-se irreal reclamar um consenso sobre o príncipe, mistico ou não, já que existe uma grande distancia entre as fontes historicas e a utilizacao e interpretação das mesmas, mesmo em 2015.Master i HistorieMAHF-HISHIS35

Relative validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire to assess dietary fiber intake in Danish adults

Background: Differences in habitual dietary fiber intake may modify effects of dietary fiber interventions, thus measurement of habitual dietary fiber intake is relevant to apply in intervention studies on fiber-rich foods, and food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) is a commonly used method. Rye bread is the major contributor of dietary fiber in the Danish population, and a nation-specific FFQ is therefore needed. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the relative validity and reproducibility of a self-administered quantitative FFQ designed to assess total dietary fiber intake among Danish adults. Design: In order to assess the relative validity of the FFQ, a total of 125 participants completed both a 7-day weighed dietary recording (DR) and an FFQ consisting of 60 questions. To evaluate the reproducibility of the FFQ, a sub-group of 12 participants subsequently completed an FFQ approximately 6 months later. Results: Estimates of mean dietary fiber intake were 24.9±9.8 and 28.1±9.4 g/day when applying the FFQ and DR, respectively, where FFQ estimates were ~12% lower (p<0.001). Pearson's correlation coefficient between the estimated dietary fiber intake of the two methods was r=0.63 (p<0.001), and 62% of the participants were grouped into the same tertile of intake according to the two methods. The estimates of mean dietary intake of first and second FFQ were very similar (22.2±4.0 and 23.3±4.1 g/day, respectively, p=0.42) and showed a correlation of r=0.95 (95% CI 0.83–0.99). Conclusion: The developed FFQ showed moderate underestimation of dietary fiber intake (g/day), adequate ranking of subjects according to their dietary fiber intake, and good reproducibility. The FFQ is therefore believed to be a valuable tool for epidemiology and screening in human interventions, where intake of dietary fibers is of specific interest