Channelling Norwegian hydropower towards greener currents: The challenge of conflicting environmental concerns?

Nearly 100 percent of electricity used in Norway stems from hydropower, but no further large-scale production is politically viable. There is however increased interest in hydropower as both a supplement to the national energy supply and as provider of balance within the European energy system. Interest focuses on: (1) increased pumping and storage; (2) upgrading of existing hydropower installations; and (3) small-scale hydro production. Such measures are also considered as climate-change mitigation. As a fourth developmental path there are also alternative processes aiming at reinforcing environmental concerns in existing hydropower, not least by revising granted licenses. These processes coincide with a reinforced focus on biodiversity. This dual environmental challenge is also enhanced by Norway’s follow-up of the EU Directive on renewable energy (RES) and the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). In this context, we here assess current political and regulatory practice in Norway, focusing on the status of environmental concerns, and the challenges Norwegian hydropower policy faces by the implementation of the EU Directives. The policy challenge is manifest as ‘trade-offs’ among hydropower priorities at both the strategic and project-specific levels; and is further enhanced by lack of clarity as to the ultimate impact of the relevant EU Directives.publishedVersio

Fra forvaltning til forretning. –Restrukturering av norske nettselskaper og konsekvenser for samfunnssikkerhet

-Samfunnets avhengighet av kritiske infrastrukturer som vann, elektrisitet og telekommunikasjon gjør oss sårbare for avbrudd i disse, noe som blant annet ble understreket i Willoch-utvalgets rapport ”Et sårbart samfunn”. Samtidig er driften av disse tjenestene gjenstand for til dels store organisatoriske omveltninger, for eksempel tjenesteutsetting, privatisering og innføring av bestiller-utfører modeller. Det foreligger relativt lite forskning på mulige sammenhenger mellom slike organisatoriske endringer, infrastrukturenes pålitelighet og samfunnssikkerhet. Denne rapporten presenterer resultatene av en delstudie som tar for seg slike endringer i kraftbransjen og ser på hvilke innvirkninger disse kan ha på leveringspåliteligheten og dermed samfunnssikkerheten på kort og lang sikt. Rapporten er basert på casestudier av to nettselskaper. Den er rettet mot å forstå den overordnede tematikken, som er forholdet mellom organisasjonsmodeller og samfunnssikkerhet, og er altså ingen evaluering av disse selskapene eller kraftbransjen for øvrig. Delstudien er et samarbeid mellom Studio Apertura ved NTNU Samfunnsforskning AS og SINTEF Energiforskning AS. Det primære datagrunnlaget er 49 forskningsintervjuer med ledere og ansatte i to store norske nettselskaper. Noen av disse er gjort hos nettselskapenes leverandører. Analysen er en helhetlig organisatorisk analyse inspirert av sikkerhetsforskning fra oljeindustrien. Sentralt er en forståelse av samspillet mellom teknologi og formelle og uformelle organisatoriske kvaliteter

Online and Blended Learning Courses for Healthcare Professionals and Policymakers on Patients' Perspectives on Medicine:A Project Report

In order for healthcare professionals to better engage with patients, they need to understand and integrate the perspectives of patients into their daily work. In this project, we developed two courses for healthcare professionals on patients’ perspectives on medicine. One course was an online course that introduced the patients’ perspectives on medicine and explained its importance for healthcare and health policy. The second course was a blended learning course, consisting of online modules and face-to-face webinars, which specified how to explore patients’ perspectives in qualitative interviews, and how to develop implementation plans. Patients participated in the development, execution, and evaluation of both courses. Overall, more than 2000 healthcare professionals enrolled in the first course and, in just over a year, 191 participants completed the online course; 57 healthcare professionals registered in the second blended learning course and six participants completed both components of the course. The relevance of knowledge gained was positively evaluated. Participants especially appreciated the participation of patients. Based on the feedback, the second blended learning course was adapted to run online and both courses continue to be freely available to all interested healthcare professionals on the Coursera platform

Local perceptions of opportunities for engagement and procedural justice in electricity transmission grid projects in Norway and the UK

ArticleCopyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Transmission lines are critical infrastructures, but frequently contested especially at the local level, by local communities. The role of public engagement in processes pertaining to specific transmission line projects is an under-researched, yet important topic that this paper seeks to discuss by investigating how inhabitants perceive these processes and to what extent they find the processes just and fair. This paper addresses the participatory aspects of the planning process, as perceived by the local inhabitants in four Norway and UK cases, by using a qualitative comparative case study design. We further analyse this issue through frameworks of public engagement and procedural justice. In both countries public engagement is largely characterized by perceptions of insufficient information, and insufficient influence on the process. In sum, the findings indicate that the informants generally perceive the opportunities for involvement as insufficient and unjust. The findings are quite similar across all cases and both countries. Local inhabitants represent diverse groups who often have different levels of knowledge, time and engagement to bring to the planning process. Their requests for improved processes thus underline the serious public engagement challenges that applicants and decision-makers face.Research Council of Norwa

The influence of different salinity conditions on egg buoyancy and development and yolk sac larval survival and morphometric traits of Baltic Sea sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus Schneider)

The small pelagic sprat (Sprattus sprattus) is a key ecologic player in the Baltic Sea. However, there is long-term variability in recruitment which is thought to be influenced by fluctuations in abiotic and biotic conditions experienced during the early life stages. This study concentrates on the influence of different ambient salinities on sprat egg development, egg buoyancy and survival as well as early yolk sac larval morphometric traits. Egg buoyancy significantly decreased with increasing salinity experienced during fertilization and/or incubation experiments. Field egg buoyancy measurements in 2007 and 2008 exhibited annual and seasonal differences in specific gravity, potentially associated with changes in adult sprat vertical distribution. Neither egg development time nor the duration of the yolk sac phase differed among salinity treatments. At eye pigmentation, larval standard length exhibited high variance among individuals but did not differ among treatments. The largest ecological impact of salinity experienced during spawning was the modification the buoyancy of eggs and yolk sac larvae, which determines their vertical habitat in the Baltic Sea. There are strong thermo- and oxyclines in the Baltic Sea, and thus salinity can indirectly impac

Epigenome-wide association of father's smoking with offspring DNA methylation: a hypothesis-generating study

Epidemiological studies suggest that father’s smoking might influence their future children’s health, but few studies have addressed whether paternal line effects might be related to altered DNA methylation patterns in the offspring. To investigate a potential association between fathers’ smoking exposures and offspring DNA methylation using epigenome-wide association studies. We used data from 195 males and females (11–54 years) participating in two population-based cohorts. DNA methylation was quantified in whole blood using Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC Beadchip. Comb-p was used to analyse differentially methylated regions (DMRs). Robust multivariate linear models, adjusted for personal/maternal smoking and cell-type proportion, were used to analyse offspring differentially associated probes (DMPs) related to paternal smoking. In sensitivity analyses, we adjusted for socio-economic position and clustering by family. Adjustment for inflation was based on estimation of the empirical null distribution in BACON. Enrichment and pathway analyses were performed on genes annotated to cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites using the gometh function in missMethyl. We identified six significant DMRs (Sidak-corrected P values: 0.0006–0.0173), associated with paternal smoking, annotated to genes involved in innate and adaptive immunity, fatty acid synthesis, development and function of neuronal systems and cellular processes. DMP analysis identified 33 CpGs [false discovery rate (FDR)  < 0.05]. Following adjustment for genomic control (λ = 1.462), no DMPs remained epigenome-wide significant (FDR < 0.05). This hypothesis-generating study found that fathers’ smoking was associated with differential methylation in their adolescent and adult offspring. Future studies are needed to explore the intriguing hypothesis that fathers’ exposures might persistently modify their future offspring’s epigenome.publishedVersio

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure