Some Aspects of and Perspectives on the Public Prosecutor’s Objectivity according to ECtHR Case-Law

The principle of objectivity includes several aspects of the prosecutor’s functions. This article highlights some aspects of and perspectives on the prosecutor’s role and raises some central questions regarding the prosecutor’s obligation to objectivity according to the case-law of the ECtHR. The fundamental duty to act objectively is first of all crucial for the prosecutor’s role as the protector of human rights, because prosecutors’ objectivity and independence is an integrated element of the state’s human rights obligations (the positive obligation to conduct an “effective official investigation” and right to an “effective” domestic remedy). ECtHR’s case-law has a strong focus on the objectivity of police and prosecutors, and the court has performed a thorough examination of several aspects of this obligation. The prosecutor’s duty to act objectively is further elaborated in connection with aspects of the law on evidence, especially regarding the collection of evidence, the evaluation of evidence, evidentiary standards, and the prosecution's burden of proof. The author suggests some legal strategies to secure and uphold a strict principle of objectivity. Finally the article also raises the question whether prosecutors’ involvement in plea agreements a threat to the principle of objectivity. Such procedures are not in itself incompatible with the fair-trial standard in article 6, but the concept of plea-bargaining and plea-agreements is a complex and disputed one. ECtHR has in some cases found such agreements incompatible with the obligation to conduct an effective investigation. The author argues that the overarching principle should be that any simplified criminal procedure must give sufficient guarantees to secure the overall fairness of the process and its outcome. To lean on the prosecutor’s duty to objectivity and independency in this respect is hardly enough.publishedVersio

Depressive symptoms in psychotic disorders : Trajectories of depression and antidepressive effectiveness of antipsychotic medication

Postponed access: the file will be accessible after 2023-10-16Background: Depressive symptoms are common in psychotic disorders and contribute to impaired functioning, a poorer quality of life, elevated relapse rate and suicide risk. Depression in schizophrenia may emerge as part of the prodromal phase, preceding and during a psychotic episode and as post-psychotic depression. Early studies indicating dysphoric effects of antipsychotics have been superseded by studies demonstrating antidepressive properties for several atypical antipsychotics. Atypical antipsychotics may exert their antidepressive effects through antagonism at serotonergic 5HT2 receptors, agonism at 5HT1 receptors, antagonism at adrenergic α2 receptors and inhibition of trans-membrane monoamine transporters. Guidelines for the treatment of depression in psychotic disorders remain unclear due to unresolved issues related to among others, the heterogeneity of depression in psychosis, thus more studies are needed. To investigate differences in antidepressive effectiveness, we conducted comparative trials of atypical antipsychotics funded independently of the pharmaceutical industry. Methods: Change in depressive symptom sum score measured by Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia was investigated in two separate randomized clinical trials, analysed by means of Linear Mixed Effects models and Latent Growth Curve modelling. Trajectories of depressive symptom change were identified with Growth Mixture Modelling. Results: In the first paper we found depressive symptom reduction that was not significantly different between the atypical antipsychotics olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone and ziprasidone in a 24-month, industry-independent, randomized trial of 226 patients acutely admitted with psychosis, although olanzapine had the smallest reduction and risperidone the greatest. There were no significant effectiveness differences in the patients with most pronounced depression neither. A much larger drop-out than assumed reduced statistical power. Still, effectiveness differences were smaller than considered clinically relevant. In the second paper from the same trial we investigated heterogeneity in treatment response and found three depression-trajectories: one depressed and treatment refractory group (14.7%), one group with limited depressive symptoms (69.6%) and a third depressed but early responding group (15.7%). A reduction of positive psychotic symptoms predicted depression improvement. Post-psychotic depression did not emerge in patients that were not depressed in the acute phase and we could not identify differentiating characteristics of the depression trajectories. The third paper investigated the antidepressive effectiveness of the atypical antipsychotics amisulpride, aripiprazole and olanzapine in a second randomized clinical trial. In 144 patients no between-drug differences in depressive symptom reduction were found, although the amisulpride group had the greatest depressive symptom reduction. The majority of depressive symptom reduction occurred within 6 weeks. No antidepressive effectiveness differences between the study drugs were found in the group with most pronounced depression, neither. Statistical power was smaller than power-analyses indicated due to discrepancies between presumed and actual study characteristics. Conclusion: We conclude that the net effectiveness of atypical antipsychotics during and following psychotic episodes on group-level is antidepressive and not depression-inducing. Since no head-to-head antipsychotic antidepressive differences were found, we can make no recommendations concerning choice of any particular atypical antipsychotic for targeting symptoms of depression in patients acutely admitted with psychosis. The treatment-refractory patients are candidates for enhanced anti-depressive treatment, for which current evidence is limited. For a substantial portion of patients treatment as usual of the psychotic episode was sufficient to reduce acute-phase depression

The Dynamics in Financial Markets During the Russia- Ukraine War : A quantitative analysis of stock prices in the oil and gas industry

This thesis analyses the impact of statements regarding Russian petroleum during the Russia- Ukraine war on stock prices of oil and gas companies in Europe. In addition, the paper analyses differences in this impact on tax haven companies versus companies not in tax havens. Shell is used as a reference point for oil and gas companies in parts of the analysis. The events are divided between statements regarding Shell and statements affecting all oil and gas companies. The statements are given each their predicted reaction. To detect effects of the events we have conducted an event study. The main results collected are: EU’s decisions do impact the stock prices of oil and gas companies in Europe. The effect on Shell appears to be persistent throughout the analyzed event window, while the effect on all the other companies lessens as the shock of war settles. We do not find any evidence of a difference in abnormal returns between companies in tax havens and companies not in tax havens following the statements regarding the wider oil and gas market of the EU.nhhma

Vektregulering og livsstilsvaner blant ungdom i Sør-Norge

Masteroppgave folkehelsevitenskap- Universitetet i Agder, 2014The aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of weight regulation, associations between weight regulation and weight categories, and the association between weight regulation and self-reported lifestyle habits among 1st grade students in the South of Norway. This study is an elaboration of the theory underlying the attached article, and includes an introduction and an elaboration of theoretical and methodological aspects of this study. The article will be included at the end of the thesis and is intended to be submitted to the Journal of Nordic Health Research. After the introduction conceptual clarifications will be defined, followed by a presentation of prevalence, risk factors, methods and consequences related to weight regulations, and associations between weight regulation and self-reported lifestyle habits among adolescences. Finally, the applied methods, design, selection, procedures for data collection and measurements will be described, as well as a discussion of the methodology. The article is prepared according to current author guidelines for submission to the Journal Nordic Health Research, and attachments will be included at the end of this study. Description of statistic, results, discussion and conclusion will be presented in the attached article due to word limits of this study. Keywords: Weight regulation, dieting, weight gaining, adolescents, lifestyle habits, weight categories, parental educatio

Studie av korrelasjon mellom fotoluminescens og IV-kurver i solcellemoduler

For å opprettholde maksimal effektproduksjon fra solcelleanlegg er det avgjørende med overvåkning av skader og degradering på modulnivå. Bildeanalyse muliggjør overvåkning av enkeltmoduler i større solparker uten å forstyrre energiproduksjonen til den enkelte modulen. Denne masteroppgaven er en del av et større forskningsprosjekt som undersøker om fotoluminescens (PL) kan benyttes til et slikt formål. Innsamling av data er utført over flere år for totalt 8 silisiumsolceller av typene multikrystallinsk, monokrystallinsk og bifacial moduler med varierende skadeomfang. Det er foretatt målinger av IV-karakteristikk og PL-signal for å studere om disse korrelerer. PL-bilder viser intensiteten på PL-signal fra modulen, som består av emitterte fotoner fra radiativ rekombinasjon. Siden graden av radiativ rekombinasjon avhenger av om fotogenererte ladningsbærere utnyttes i kretsen eller ikke, kan PL-bildene analyseres for friske og defekte områder i modulen. PL-avbildningen er foretatt i direkte sollys, som krever bildebehandling for å fjerne støy i form av refleksjon. Dette oppnås ved avbilding i to forskjellige driftstilstander med ulik PL-intenstitet, eksempelvis åpen og lukket krets. Det benyttes en MOSFET for hurtig veksling mellom driftspunktene. Bildene med svakt PL-signal trekkes fra bildene med sterkt PL-signal slik at resultatet (∆PL-bilder) kun består av PL-signalet emittert fra modulen. ∆PL-bildene normaliseres og IV-karakteristikken korrigeres til standard testforhold (STC) for å muliggjøre sammenlikning mellom målinger foretatt ved ulike forhold. Resultatene tyder på sterk korrelasjon mellom ∆PL-bilder og IV-karakteristikk. For tilsynelatende friske moduler er IV-karakteristikken tilnærmet nominell kurve og ∆PL-bildene viser ingen åpenbare effektreduserende skader. For moduler hvor IV-karakteristikken viser tydelige effekttap underbygges dette ved analyse av ∆PL-bildene som viser tydelige sprekker. For moduler med totalknust modulglass tyder IV-karakteristikken på flere ødelagte celler, noe som også underbygges av ∆PL-bildene.A crucial part of obtaining maximum power production of big solar cell systems is to detect the development of degradation at module level. Image analysis enables monitoring of individual modules in larger solar parks without disturbing the energy production or having to connect to each individual module. This master’s thesis is part of a larger project at NMBU with the aim of using photoluminescence for this purpose. Data collection has been carried out over a period of 4 years for a total of 8 silicon solar modules – four multi crystalline, two mono crystalline, and two bifacial modules. IV characteristic measurements and photoluminescence (PL) imaging have been performed to study the correlation between them. PL images display the intensity of emitted PL signal from a module, which consists of photons emitted due to radiative recombination. The amount of radiative recombination in a solar cell depends on the amount of current extracted, and PL images can therefore be used to analyze faults and degradation of modules. The PL images are acquired in direct sunlight, which requires image processing to remove noise in the form of reflection. This is achieved by photographing the modules at two different operating points with different PL-intensities - open and short circuit. Fast switching between these operating points is achieved by using a MOSFET. To remove the reflection from the images, images with a weak PL signal are subtracted from the images with a strong PL signal so that the result (∆PL images) only display PL signal emitted from the module. The ∆PL images are normalized and the IV characteristic is corrected to standard test conditions (STC) to enable comparison between measurements taken in different conditions. The results suggest a strong correlation between the ∆PL images and IV characteristics. For seemingly healthy modules, the IV characteristics resemble the nominal curve and the ∆PL images display no obvious power-reducing damage. In modules where the IV characteristic show obvious power losses, the ∆PL-images substantiate faulty solar cells with obvious cracks. For modules where visual inspection shows a broken module glass, the IV characteristic suggests several broken cells

Sexual Dysfunction and Hyperprolactinemia in Male Psychotic Inpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction. Sexual dysfunction (SD) and hyperprolactinemia are frequently reported in patients with psychotic disorders and have the potential for severe complications but investigations in males are particularly scarce. The primary aims were to determine the prevalence of SD and hyperprolactinemia in male patients and to investigate whether associations exist between SD and prolactin levels. Methods. Cross-sectional data were obtained at discharge from the hospital or 6 weeks after admittance for patients acutely admitted for psychosis and treated with a second-generation antipsychotic drug. Results. Half the patients reported diminished sexual desire and more than a third reported erectile and ejaculatory dysfunctions with no differences among the drugs. More than half the sample was hyperprolactinemic. No association was found between prolactin levels and SD. Conclusion. High rates of SD and hyperprolactinemia were found in male patients and should be a treatment target. SD and hyperprolactinemia were not correlated

I politi- og påtalerettens grenseland. Lovregulering av enkelte gråsoner mellom politioppgaver og påtaleoppgaver?

Artikkelen tar for seg ulike praktiske krysningspunkter hvor politiretten og påtaleretten møtes, hvor regelvalg og ansvarslinjer er – eller kan oppfattes å være – uklare og hvor det bør vurderes en nærmere rettslig regulering.acceptedVersio