Autonom klasseromsledelse : sammenhenger med og mellom elevers behovstilfredsstillelse, motivasjon, mestring og velvære

Masteroppgaven er en kvantitativ analyse, som tar for seg klasseromsledelse i ungdomsskolen og videregående skole. Utvalget er hentet fra Notodden ungdomsskole og Notodden videregående skole. Til sammen 244 elever besvarte 15 skjemaer (målevariabler), bestående av vel 130 items. I studien vurderes bl.a. lærerens undervisningsstil, og det sees på sammenhenger mellom lærerens undervisningsstil og elevenes psykologiske behovstilfredstillelse. Videre vurderes sammenhenger mellom disse variablene og elevenes autonome motivasjon og opplevelse av kompetanse. I undersøkelsen inngår også variabler som måler elevenes opplevelse av mestring, velvære og vitalitet. Mestringsopplevelse betraktes i denne sammenheng mer som en varig opplevelse av å ha det godt med seg selv. Vitalitet måler mer spesifikt elevens oppmerksomhet eller årvåkenhet. Studien er i utgangspunktet ikke en kausal analyse. I resultatkapittelet er det imidlertid i tillegg til bivariat analyse gjennomført en strukturell modellering, som har til hensikt å se på mulige årsakssammenhenger. Korrelasjonene som fremkommer i resultatdelen, holder overveiende gode verdier, og danner dermed et godt grunnlag for videre bearbeiding. Strukturell modellering er en videreutvikling av multipell regresjonsanalyse, og i denne studien er lærerens autonomt støttende undervisningsstil brukt som uavhengig variabel. Tilfredsstillelse av psykologiske behov, autonom motivasjon og kompetanseopplevelse opptrer både som avhengige og uavhengige variabler, og effektvariablene mestring, velvære og vitalitet blir således avhengige variabler. Det teoretiske grunnlaget for studien, er de amerikanske psykologene Deci og Ryans selvbestemmelsesteori. Deci og Ryan startet arbeidet sitt på syttitallet, og arbeidet deres er i dag godt forankret i Europa. Særlig i fokus for teoriretningen er lærerens interaksjon med elevene, og konteksten rundt undervisningen. Videre er elevens persepsjon av forholdene rundt undervisningen, samt at individet setter seg selv som ansvarlig for handlingen (årsaksplassering) sentralt innenfor teorien. Utover dette, er indre målinnhold tillagt vesentlig betydning for utvikling av autonom (selvbestemt) motivasjon. Alle besvarte skjemaer er lastet inn i SPSS programvare, og alle utregninger i beskrivende statistikk og bivariat korrelasjonsanalyse er gjort med utgangspunkt i SPSS. Den strukturelle modelleringen er utført i LISREL programvare. Studien viser i stor grad de sammenhengene som var antatt på forhånd, nemlig at en autonomt støttende undervisningsstil bl.a. har gunstig virkning på elevers motivasjon og mestringsopplevelser

Kommunalt demokrati på prøve

Denne oppgaven har som formål å se på to kommuner i Rogaland fylke som under kommunereformen 2014 valgte å ikke gjennomføre kommunesammenslåing på tross av geografisk beliggenhet. Problemstillingen er som følger: Hva kan forklare hvorfor Randaberg kommune og Stavanger kommune ikke slo seg sammen til én kommune som følger av kommunereformen 2014? Som supplement til problemstillingen skal oppgaven ta for seg to forskningsspørsmål: Hvordan ble prosessen organisert, og hvilke argumenter fra begge kommunene var mest sentrale i diskursen? For å kunne svare på disse spørsmålene tar oppgaven for seg en rekke teoretiske forklaringsperspektiver, kombinert med saksbehandlinger og annen data fra Randaberg kommune og Stavanger kommune. Fra sommeren 2014 til det endelige vedtaket ble levert til Rogalands Statsforvalter i sommer 2016 jobbet alle kommunene i fylket med diverse utredninger og naboprater. Enkelte viste seg derimot å være mer engasjerte enn andre. Randaberg kommune valgte tidlig å melde seg ut av naboprater, mens Stavanger viste stort engasjement for å skape en ny kommune i regionen. Forklaringsperspektivene har hjulpet til å få en bedre forståelse av hvorfor dette var utfallet. Særlig temaene knyttet til økonomi og demokrati har vist seg å være svært innflytelsesrike overfor kommunenes beslutninger, mens identitet har vist seg vanskelig å kunne knyttes til beslutningsprosessen

Kiyobimboo

I'm just a potter. I learned my craft from Henry Serenco. He learned from Val Cushing,who learned from Daniel Rhodes, who learned from Margurite Wildenhain,who studied at the Bauhaus in 1919. I am lucky. Each one of them was willing to pass on this " dying craft" to one last generation. &nbsp;</p

Invasive Haemophilus influenzae Disease in Adults ≥65 Years, United States, 2011.

BackgroundSince the introduction of the Haemophilus influenzae serotype b vaccine, H influenzae epidemiology has shifted. In the United States, the largest burden of disease is now in adults aged ≥65 years. However, few data exist on risk factors for disease severity and outcome in this age group.MethodsA retrospective case-series review of invasive H influenzae infections in patients aged ≥65 years was conducted for hospitalized cases reported to Active Bacterial Core surveillance in 2011.ResultsThere were 299 hospitalized cases included in the analysis. The majority of cases were caused by nontypeable H influenzae, and the overall case fatality ratio (CFR) was 19.5%. Three or more underlying conditions were present in 63% of cases; 94% of cases had at least 1. Patients with chronic heart conditions (congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and/or atrial fibrillation) (odds ratio [OR], 3.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.65-6.46), patients from private residences (OR, 8.75; 95% CI, 2.13-35.95), and patients who were not resuscitate status (OR, 2.72; 95% CI, 1.31-5.66) were more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Intensive care unit admission (OR, 3.75; 95% CI, 1.71-8.22) and do not resuscitate status (OR, 12.94; 95% CI, 4.84-34.55) were significantly associated with death.ConclusionsWithin this age group, burden of disease and CFR both increased significantly as age increased. Using ICU admission as a proxy for disease severity, our findings suggest several conditions increased risk of disease severity and patients with severe disease were more likely to die. Further research is needed to determine the most effective approach to prevent H influenzae disease and mortality in older adults

Benthic invertebrates in Svalbard fjords—when metabarcoding does not outperform traditional biodiversity assessment

To protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity is one of the 10 challenges identified by the United Nations’s Decade of the Ocean Science. In this study we used eDNA from sediments collected in two fjords of the Svalbard archipelago and compared the taxonomic composition with traditional methods through metabarcoding, targeting mitochondrial CO1, to survey benthos. Clustering of 21.6 mill sequence reads with a d value of 13 in swarm, returned about 25 K OTU reads. An identification search with the BOLD database returned 12,000 taxonomy annotated sequences spanning a similarity range of 50% to 100%. Using an acceptance filter of minimum 90% similarity to the CO1 reference sequence, we found that 74% of the ca 100 taxon identified sequence reads were Polychaeta and 22% Nematoda. Relatively few other benthic invertebrate species were detected. Many of the identified sequence reads were extra-organismal DNA from terrestrial, planktonic, and photic zone sources. For the species rich Polychaeta, we found that, on average, only 20.6% of the species identified from morphology were also detected with DNA. This discrepancy was not due to missing reference sequences in the search database, because 90–100% (mean 96.7%) of the visually identified species at each station were represented with barcodes in Boldsystems. The volume of DNA samples is small compared with the volume searched in visual sorting, and the replicate DNA-samples in sum covered only about 2% of the surface area of a grab. This may considerably reduce the detection rate of species that are not uniformly distributed in the sediments. Along with PCR amplification bias and primer mismatch, this may be an important reason for the limited congruence of species identified with the two approaches. However, metabarcoding also identified 69 additional species that are usually overlooked in visual sample sorting, demonstrating how metabarcoding can complement traditional methodology by detecting additional, less conspicuous groups of organisms.publishedVersio

Genetic differentiation between inshore and offshore populations of northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis)

Many marine organisms have a permanent presence both inshore and offshore and spawn in multiple areas, yet their status as separate populations or stocks remain unclear. This is the situation for the northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) around the Arctic Ocean, which in northern Norway represents an important income for a small-scale coastal fishery and a large-vessel offshore fleet. In Norwegian waters, we uncovered two distinct genetic clusters, viz. a Norwegian coastal and a Barents Sea cluster. Shrimps with a mixed heritage from the Norwegian coastal and the Barents Sea clusters, and genetically different from both, inhabit the fjords at the northernmost coast (Finnmark). Genetic structure between fjords did not display any general trend, and only the Varangerfjord in eastern Finnmark displayed significant genetic structure within the fjord. Shrimps in the Finnmark fjords differed in some degree from shrimps both in the adjacent Barents Sea and along the rest of the coast and should probably be considered a separate management unit

Contaminants reach everywhere: Fish dietary samples should be surface decontaminated prior to molecular diet analysis

Knowledge of trophic interaction is necessary to understand the dynamics of ecosystems and develop ecosystem-based management. The key data to measure these interactions should come from large-scale diet analyses with good taxonomic resolution. To that end, molecular methods that analyze prey DNA from guts and feces provide high-resolution dietary taxonomic data. However, molecular diet analysis may also produce unreliable results if the samples are contaminated by external sources of DNA. Employing the freshwater European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) as a tracer for sample contamination, we studied the possible route of whitefish in beaked redfish (Sebastes mentella) guts sampled in the Barents Sea. We used whitefish-specific COI primers for diagnostic analysis, and fish-specific 12S and metazoa-specific COI primers for metabarcoding analyses of intestine and stomach contents of fish samples that were either not cleaned, water cleaned, or bleach cleaned after being in contact with whitefish. Both the diagnostic and COI metabarcoding revealed clear positive effects of cleaning samples as whitefish were detected in significantly higher numbers of uncleaned samples compared to water or bleach-cleaned samples. Stomachs were more susceptible to contamination than intestines and bleach cleaning reduced the frequency of whitefish contamination. Also, the metabarcoding approach detected significantly more reads of whitefish in the stomach than in intestine samples. The diagnostic analysis and COI metabarcoding detected contaminants in a higher and comparable number of gut samples than the 12S-based approach. Our study underlines thus the importance of surface decontamination of aquatic samples to obtain reliable diet information from molecular data.publishedVersio

Movement diversity and partial sympatry of coastal and Northeast Arctic cod ecotypes at high latitudes

Movement diversity within species represent an important but often neglected, component of biodiversity that affects ecological and genetic interactions, as well as the productivity of exploited systems. By combining individual tracking data from acoustic telemetry with novel genetic analyses, we describe the movement diversity of two Atlantic cod Gadus morhua ecotypes in two high-latitude fjord systems: the highly migratory Northeast Arctic cod (NEA cod) that supports the largest cod fishery in the world, and the more sedentary Norwegian coastal cod, which is currently in a depleted state. As predicted, coastal cod displayed a higher level of fjord residency than NEA cod. Of the cod tagged during the spawning season, NEA cod left the fjords permanently to a greater extent and earlier compared to coastal cod, which to a greater extent remained resident and left the fjords temporarily. Despite this overall pattern, horizontal movements atypical for the ecotypes were common with some NEA cod remaining within the fjords year-round and some coastal cod displaying a low fjord fidelity. Fjord residency and exit timing also differed with spawning status and body size, with spawning cod and large individuals tagged during the feeding season more prone to leave the fjords and earlier than non-spawning and smaller individuals. While our results confirm a lower fjord dependency for NEA cod, they highlight a movement diversity within each ecotype and sympatric residency between ecotypes, previously undetected by population-level monitoring. This new knowledge is relevant for the management, which should base their fisheries advice for these interacting ecotypes on their habitat use and seasonal movements.publishedVersio

Maximizing sampling efficiency to detect differences in fish community composition using environmental DNA metabarcoding in subarctic fjords

Environmental DNA (eDNA) has gained popularity as a tool for ecosystem biomonitoring and biodiversity assessment. Although much progress has been made regarding laboratory and fieldwork protocols, the issue of sampling efficiency requires further investigation, particularly in three-dimensional marine systems. This study focuses on fish community composition in marine ecosystems and aims to analyze the efficiency of sampling design given the sampling effort for distinguishing between different communities. We sampled three fjords in Northern Norway, taking samples along fjord transects and at three different depths, and amplified a fragment of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene of bony fishes using the MiFish primers. We evaluated the effect of (i) the number of sampling stations, (ii) samples' spatial distribution, and (iii) the data treatment approach (presence/absence versus semiquantitative) for maximizing the efficiency of eDNA metabarcoding sampling when inferring differences of fish community compositions between fjords. We found that the manner of data treatment strongly affected the minimum number of sampling stations required to detect differences among communities; because the semiquantitative approach retained some information about abundance of the underlying reads, it was the most efficient. Furthermore, we found little-to-no difference of fish communities in samples from intermediate depths when comparing vertical fish communities. Lastly, we found that the differences between fish communities at the surface were the highest across the horizontal distance and overall, samples ~30 km apart showed the highest variation in the horizontal distribution. Boosting sampling efficiency (reducing sampling effort without compromising ecological inferences) can significantly contribute to enhanced biodiversity management and efficient biomonitoring plans.publishedVersio

Distinct genetic clustering in the weakly differentiated polar cod, Boreogadus saida Lepechin, 1774 from East Siberian Sea to Svalbard

The cold-adapted polar cod Boreogadus saida, a key species in Arctic ecosystems, is vulnerable to global warming and ice retreat. In this study, 1257 individuals sampled in 17 locations within the latitudinal range of 75–81°N from Svalbard to East Siberian Sea were genotyped with a dedicated suite of 116 single-nucleotide polymorphic loci (SNP). The overall pattern of isolation by distance (IBD) found was driven by the two easternmost samples (East Siberian Sea and Laptev Sea), whereas no differentiation was registered in the area between the Kara Sea and Svalbard. Eleven SNP under strong linkage disequilibrium, nine of which could be annotated to chromosome 2 in Atlantic cod, defined two genetic groups of distinct size, with the major cluster containing seven-fold larger number of individuals than the minor. No underlying geographic basis was evident, as both clusters were detected throughout all sampling sites in relatively similar proportions (i.e. individuals in the minor cluster ranging between 4 and 19% on the location basis). Similarly, females and males were also evenly distributed between clusters and age groups. A differentiation was, however, found regarding size at age: individuals belonging to the major cluster were significantly longer in the second year. This study contributes to increasing the population genetic knowledge of this species and suggests that an appropriate management should be ensured to safeguard its diversity.publishedVersio