Does the Utilities Sector Directive apply on offshore wind projects in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Norway in light of Article 126 of the EEA Agreement?

This thesis aims to clarify the application of EEA procurement law to offshore wind activities in the EEZ. A topic of clear importance, more so in light of the on-going efforts to increase offshore wind activity in Norway. Offshore electricity generation, using floating and bottom-fixed wind turbines, is a rapidly maturing technology that is expected to play an integral role in future clean energy generation systems in Europe. The value creating effect for Norwegian industry is estimated to be 117 Billion NOK over 30 years, creating 124.800 jobs in the process. It is therefore in the best interest of Contracting Entities performing the procurement in the EEZ that the scope of the Utilities Directive is clarified in order to prevent unnecessary lawsuits and claims of damages by competitors.MasteroppgaveJUS399MAJUR-2MAJU

Lymphocytes Prediction of Homeostasis Model Assessment of Beta-cells Function (HOMA-B) and C-peptide Level during Pregnancy: New Insight into Beta-cells Proliferation and Insulin Sensitivity

هدفت هذه الدراسة الكشف عن علاقة الببتيد سي ونموذج تقييم توازن وظيفة خلايا بيتا (HOMA2-B%) مع المؤشرات الحيوية الالتهابية في النساء الحوامل بالمقارنة بالنساء غير الحوامل. تم استخدام الأمصال لـ 28 امرأة حامل في أواخر الحمل مقابل 27 امرأة غير حامل (مجموعة التحكم) لتقديرالببتيد سي وهورمونات الغدة الدرقية (T3) و (T4) بواسطة مقايسة الممتز المناعي المرتبط بالإنزيم (ELISA) وتم تقدير سكر الدم الصامي (FBS) بواسطة المحلل التلقائي Biolis 24i، وتعداد خلايا الدم (C.B.C) بواسطة جهاز تحليل أمراض الدم وتم حساب HOMA2-B% ونموذج تقييم توازن حساسية الأنسولين HOMA2-S%)) باستخدام قيم الببتيد سي بدلا من قيم الانسولين. تم إجراء المقارنات والارتباطات واختبارات تحليل الانحدار بواسطة برنامج الحزمة الإحصائية للعلوم الاجتماعية (SPSS). في مجموعة النساء الحوامل، زادت HOMA2-B%  وT3 وT4 وخلايا الدم البيضاء (WBC) وخلايا MID والخلايا المحببة (GRAN) بشكل ملحوظ (p-values˂0.05)، بينما ارتفع مستوى الببتيد سي حوالي 11٪ مقارنة بمجموعة التحكم. انخفضت الخلايا الليمفاوية وخلايا الدم الحمراء (RBC) والصفائح الدموية (PLT) والهيموغلوبين (HGB) بشكل ملحوظ (p-values˂0.05). الخلايا الليمفاوية تنبأت بمستوى كلاً من  HOMA2-B%والببتيد سي أثناء الحمل ( R2 = 0.516 ، p ˂0.0004 ؛ R2 = 0.31 ، p= 0.009 على التوالي). يوضح التنبؤ بمستويات HOMA2-B%  والببتيد سي بواسطة تعداد الخلايا الليمفاوية أن التكيف في خلايا بيتا قد يكون جزءًا من آلية النظام الدفاعي للجسم ضد الإجهاد التأكسدي، وهذا يسلط الضوء على نظرة جديدة حول تكاثر خلايا بيتا أثناء الحمل وحساسية الأنسولين.This work aims to detect the associations of C-peptide and the homeostasis model assessment of beta-cells function (HOMA2-B%) with inflammatory biomarkers in pregnant-women in comparison with non-pregnant women. Sera of 28 normal pregnant women at late pregnancy versus 27 matched age non-pregnant women (control), were used to estimate C-peptide, triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxin (T4) by Enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay (ELISA), fasting blood sugar (FBS) by automatic analyzer Biolis 24i, hematology-tests by hematology analyzer and the calculation of HOMA2-B% and homeostasis model assessment of insulin sensitivity (HOMA2-S%) by using C-peptide values instead of insulin. The comparisons, correlations, regression analysis tests were performed by the software of statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). In pregnant women group, HOMA2-B%, T3, T4, white blood cell (WBC), MID cells, granulocytes (GRAN) increased significantly (p-values˂0.05), while C-peptide level raised about 11% compared to control. Lymphocytes, red blood cells (RBC), platelets (PLT) and hemoglobin (HGB) decreased significantly (p-values˂0.05). Lymphocytes predicted both HOMA2-B% and C-peptide level during pregnancy (R2 =0.516, p ˂0.0004; R2=0.31, p ˂0.009 respectively). Prediction of HOMA2-B% and C-peptide levels by lymphocytes account clarifies that the adaptation in beta-cells might be a part of the defense system mechanism of the body against oxidative stress, and this highlights new insight on the proliferation of beta-cells during pregnancy and insulin sensitivity

Challenges of Addressing Environmental Problems due to Quarrying Operation in Uwandani Ward, Pemba

This paper examines the challenges of addressing environmental challenges arising from aggregates quarrying at Uwandani Ward in Pemba, Zanzibar. Specifically, the study examines i) the socio-economic importance of quarrying, ii) the environmental impacts, iii) the interventions done to address environmental problems, and iv) the constraints over interventions. Data collection methods included household questionnaire survey, key informants interviews and participant observations. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and content analysis techniques were used in the analysis and processing of quantitative and qualitative data. The findings showed that although the revenue generated from quarrying operation is crucial for the livelihood of the local people, persistent environmental problems have been difficult to address due to lack of education, poverty, rapid increase of quarrying operations, drought and climate change variability, apathy in the community and inferior technology used in the quarrying operations. Furthermore, the challenges of tackling environmental problems are contributed by unsuccessful piecemeal interventions of the government because of the lack of clear recognition and appreciation of the artisanal quarrying operation contribution in the livelihood of local people. This paper recommends that the government recognizes and appreciates informal quarrying operations in order to put effective policies to develop the sector and address its environmental problems. This should be accompanied by the participation of all stakeholders in planning and implementation to address environmental problems through bottom-up approaches

SIGHTED: A Framework for Semantic Integration of Heterogeneous Sensor Data on the Internet of Things

AbstractSensors are embedded nowadays in a growing number of everyday life objects. Smartphones, wearables, and sensor networks together play an important role in bridging the gap between physical and cyber worlds, a fundamental aspect of the Internet of Things vision. The ability to reuse sensor data integrated from multiple heterogeneous sources is a step towards building innovative applications and services. In this paper SIGHTED, a sensor data integration framework, is proposed exploiting semantic web technologies and linked data principles. It provides a layered structure as a guideline for integrating sensor data from various sources supporting accessibility and usability. DotThing, a demo platform, is implemented as an instantiation of SIGHTED framework and evaluated. Smartphones and sensor nodes are connected to DotThing showing the ability to query and reuse integrated sensor data from multiple sources to create more flexible horizontal applications. DotThing implementation also demonstrates the need for adding a semantic layer to existing IoT cloud-based platforms, like Xively, that generally lack such layer resulting in proprietary vertical solutions with limited data integration and discovery capabilities. DotThing makes use of vocabularies from existing ontologies on the linked data cloud providing a unified model to annotate data and link it to existing resources on the web

DONS: Dynamic Optimized Neighbor Selection for smart blockchain networks

Blockchain (BC) systems mainly depend on the consistent state of the Distributed Ledger (DL) at different logical and physical places of the network. The majority of network nodes need to be enforced to use one or both of the following approaches to remain consistent: (i) to wait for certain delays (i.e. by requesting a hard puzzle solution as in PoW and PoUW, or to wait for random delays as in PoET, etc.) (ii) to propagate shared data through shortest possible paths within the network. The first approach may cause higher energy consumption and/or lower throughput rates if not optimized, and in many cases these features are conventionally fixed. Therefore, it is preferred to enhance the second approach with some optimization. Previous works for this approach have the following drawbacks: they may violate the identity privacy of miners, only locally optimize the Neighbor Selection method (NS), do not consider the dynamicity of the network, or require the nodes to know the precise size of the network at all times. In this paper, we address these issues by proposing a Dynamic and Optimized NS protocol called DONS, using a novel privacy-aware leader election within the public BC called AnoLE, where the leader anonymously solves the The Minimum Spanning Tree problem (MST) of the network in polynomial time. Consequently, miners are informed about the optimum NS according to the current state of network topology. We analytically evaluate the complexity, the security and the privacy of the proposed protocols against state-of-the-art MST solutions for DLs and well known attacks. Additionally, we experimentally show that the proposed protocols outperform state-of-the-art NS solutions for public BCs. Our evaluation shows that the proposed DONS and AnoLE protocols are secure, private, and they acutely outperform all current NS solutions in terms of block finality and fidelity. © 2021 The Author(s

Classification and Dynamics of Class of ξ(as)-QSO

The current study provides a new class of ξ(as)-QSO defined on 2D simplex and classifies it into 18 non-conjugate (isomorphic) classes. This classification is based on their conjugacy and the remuneration of coordinates. The current study also examines the limiting points associated with the behavior of trajectories for four classes defined on 2D simplex