Practical use of the cost-benefit analysis

Master's thesis in Risk managementThe petroleum industry is Norway’s most important trade, and has been an important contributor to the economic growth for the last 30 years. The industry has nonetheless also inflicted, and will continue to inflict the society with considerable consequences, affecting both humans and the environment. The cost-benefit analysis is a well known and widely used analysis in respect to risk-reduction. Its main purpose is to identify and quantify all the advantages and disadvantages from the different projects and to rank them according to their expected net present values. It is also a much disputed analysis, as some people find it unethical to transform every element of the analysis into a monetary value, including human life and environmental influence. What we will try to visualise, is how some companies in the petroleum industry uses the cost-benefit analysis in respect to risk reduction, and how it is carried out with regard to legislations and the trends in the risk level. A theoretical interpretation of the cost-benefit analysis, and other risk analysis that are used as quality assessment, will be given first, to show the composition of the analysis. Legislations and good offshore practice must be the underlying causes in every decision. Even though all the companies involved are international companies and therefore subject to both national and international legislations and demands, in this context the Norwegian legislations have been of importance. When including the development in the risk level, the most important factor was to find out whether the risk level might affect the valuations and implementation in the cost-benefit analysis. But it rather showed a mutual influence between the risk level and the cost-benefit analyses’ risk reducing measures. Even though the risk level affects the cost-benefit analysis, in the sense that there is still room for improvements, it is also visible that risk-reducing measures have had its effect on the risk level. There has been a visible reduction in accidents over the past few years, both in respect to personnel and to the environment

On the Persistent Shape and Coherence of Pulsating Auroral Patches

The pulsating aurora covers a broad range of fluctuating shapes that are poorly characterized. The purpose of this paper is therefore to provide objective and quantitative measures of the extent to which pulsating auroral patches maintain their shape, drift and fluctuate in a coherent fashion. We present results from a careful analysis of pulsating auroral patches using all-sky cameras. We have identified four well-defined individual patches that we follow in the patch frame of reference. In this way we avoid the space-time ambiguity which complicates rocket and satellite measurements. We find that the shape of the patches is remarkably persistent with 85-100% of the patch being repeated for 4.5-8.5 min. Each of the three largest patches has a temporal correlation with a negative dependence on distance, and thus does not fluctuate in a coherent fashion. A time-delayed response within the patches indicates that the so-called streaming mode might explain the incoherency. The patches appear to drift differently from the SuperDARN-determined $\stackrel{\rightarrow}{E}$ X $\stackrel{\rightarrow}{B}$ convection velocity. However, in a nonrotating reference frame the patches drift with 230-287 m/s in a north eastward direction, which is what typically could be expected for the convection return flow

Oppfølging av pårørende til pasienter med høggradig gliom

Hensikten med studien er å kartlegge pårørende til pasienter med høygradig glioms opplevelse og erfaringer med oppfølgingen fra sykepleiere og annet helsepersonell. Høggradig gliom er en primær ondartet hjernesvulst med et aggressivt vekstmønster og dårlig prognose. Når pasienten rammes av en slik alvorlig sykdom, rammes også de nærmeste pårørende. I tillegg til kreftrelaterte utfordringer, står pårørende overfor utfordringer knyttet til progredierende nevrologiske symptom som epilepsi og kognitiv svikt med adferds- og personlighetsforandringer. Pårørende er viktige støttespillere for både pasientene og helsevesenet, og kan ha egne behov som helsepersonell må følge opp. Studien er en longitudinell deskriptiv undersøkelse, der pårørende rapporterer ved brukerundersøkelser ved tre kartleggingstidspunkt - ved utreise etter pasientens operasjon, etter at strålebehandlingen er avsluttet ca 2,5 mnd postoperativt og etter 6 måneder postoperativt. Utvalget består av 10 pårørende til pasienter med høygradig gliom, hovedsakelig kvinner og ektefelle/samboer til pasienten. Median alder er 56,5 år. Resultatene viser at pårørende til pasienter med høygradig gliom har positive erfaringer fra oppfølgingen fra helsepersonell på enkelte områder, men på andre områder er de mindre tilfreds. De blir i liten grad ble tatt med på råd i forbindelse med pasientens behandling og pleie, og er generelt mindre tilfreds med informasjonen de får fra helsepersonell. Spesielt rapporterer de at de ikke fikk tilstrekkelig informasjon vedrørende virkninger og bivirkninger av medikamenter pasienten begynte med, om hvilke plager pasienten kunne regne med fremover, og hvem de kan kontakte dersom noe skjer når de er hjemme. Kommentarer i fritekst forsterker inntrykket fra de kvantitative resultatene, der de pårørende understreker positive erfaringer i møte med helsepersonell, men påpeker negative erfaringer i forhold til et udekket informasjonsbehov. Resultatene kan tyde på at det er behov for kvalitetsforbedring av oppfølgingen av pårørende til pasienter med høygradig gliom.The aim of this study is to identify and describe the experience of caregivers of high grade glioma patients, concerning the follow-up from nurses and other healthcare professionals. High grade glioma is a primary malignant brain tumor with an aggressive growth pattern and poor prognosis. When the patient is suffering from such a serious illness, it also affects the patient’s family. In addition to the cancer-related challenges, family members are facing challenges associated with progressive neurological symptoms such as epilepsy and cognitive impairment with behavioral and personality changes. Caregivers are important resources for both patients and health care professionals, but they may support needs of their own. The study is a longitudinal descriptive study, where caregivers report in a user survey at three assessment times - when leaving the hospital after the patient’s surgery, after radiation therapy about 2.5 month after the patient’s surgery, and 6 months after surgery. The sample consists of 10 caregivers of high grade glioma patients, mainly women and mainly the patients spouse or partner. Median age is 56.5 years. Results show that caregivers of high grade glioma patients have positive experiences from the follow-up by health professionals, but in some areas they are less satisfied. They report rarely being consulted regarding the patient treatment, and are generally less satisfied with the information they receive from health professionals. In particular, they report not receive sufficient information regarding effects and side-effects of medications, about symptoms they could expect to come, and whom to contact if something happens when they’re at home. Written comments underlines the quantitative results, expressing positive experiences meeting the health care professionals, but comments also emphasize less satisfaction regarding unmet information needs. These results suggest that there is a need for quality improvement of the follow-up of caregivers of high grade glioma patients.Master i klinisk sykepleievitenska

Implications of Service Provider Flexibility on Attitudinal Loyalty

This research analyzes language features associated with flexibility and their effect on attitudinal loyalty by using text mining techniques on a dataset of about 5k chat conversations. Two positive constructs (confirmation, owning statements) and two negative constructs (argumentativeness, anxiety) are measured through a top-down method using self-made dictionaries. Confirmative words have a positive effect on attitudinal loyalty, while owning statements have a negative effect on attitudinal loyalty. Moreover, handovers by a chatbot negatively moderates the effect between service providers flexibility and attitudinal loyalty. A post hoc study identifies the most popular topics between service providers and customer, suggesting that the former should use owning statements with caution when talking about topics such as personal information and technical issue

Styringsperspektiv og innovasjon i offentleg sektor. Ei ideanalyse

Tema for denne oppgåva er korleis ein kan forvente at innovasjonspolitikk i det offentlege blir sett ut i livet gjennom rådande styringsperspektiv og kva styringsperspektiv kan innebere for organisering av innovasjon i offentleg sektor. Oppgåva tek utgangspunkt i stortingsmeldinga «En innovativ offentlig sektor. Kultur, ledelse og kompetanse» (Meld.St. 30 (2019-2020)). Ved bruk av ideanalyse som metode analyserer eg det som kjem fram i stortingsmeldinga med omsyn til styringsperspektiv før eg drøftar to konkrete forslag til korleis offentleg sektor kan organisere for innovasjon

Scale size-dependent characteristics of the nightside aurora

We have determined the spatiotemporal characteristics of the magnetosphere-ionosphere (M-I) coupling using auroral imaging. Observations at fixed positions for an extended period of time are provided by a ground-based all-sky imager measuring the 557.7 nm auroral emissions. We report on a single event of nightside aurora ($\sim$22 magnetic local time) preceding a substorm onset. To determine the spatiotemporal characteristics, we perform an innovative analysis of an all-sky imager movie (19 min duration, images at 3.31 Hz) that combines a two-dimensional spatial fast Fourier transform with a temporal correlation. We find a scale size-dependent variability where the largest scale sizes are stable on timescales of minutes while the small scale sizes are more variable. When comparing two smaller time intervals of different types of auroral displays, we find a variation in their characteristics. The characteristics averaged over the event are in remarkable agreement with the spatiotemporal characteristics of the nightside field-aligned currents during moderately disturbed times. Thus, two different electrodynamical parameters of the M-I coupling show similar behavior. This gives independent support to the claim of a system behavior that uses repeatable solutions to transfer energy and momentum from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere

Arbeidsgivars styringsrett – Kravet til forsvarleg sakshandsaming ved endringsavgjerder

Ei samanlikning med sakshandsamingsreglane for oppseiingar, medrekna domstolskontrollen, tvisteløysinga og rettsverknader ved normbro

Does Norwegian aid have an effect on the recipient country's equality of access to health and education? An empirical analysis, 1960-2019.

Effektiviteten av bistand har vært en debatt i kontinuerlig utvikling uten varige enigheter blant forskere og beslutningstakere. Forskning har vist motstridende resultater og splittet diskusjonen om bistand inn i pessimister og optimister. Norge regnes som en hovedaktør innen bistand og har flere fordeler som giverland, noe som fører til høye forventninger til resultatene. Har Norsk bistand en effekt på mottakerlandets likestilling av tilgang til helse og utdanning? Denne avhandlingen analyserer empiri med OLS-regresjoner og finner pessimistiske resultater. Norsk bilateral bistand påvirker ikke mottakerlandets likeverdige tilgang til helse. Den har en negativ effekt på tilgangen til utdanning, og en liten, men positiv, effekt på dødeligheten under av barn under fem år. I samtlige tilfeller presterer ikke Norge bedre enn DAC-landene som gruppe. Disse resultatene underbygger andre studier som stiller spørsmål til gyldigheten av det gode omdømmet til norsk bistand, og krediterer det til størrelsen av bistanden fremfor dens faktiske resultater