Foreign Direct Investment and Corruption. An econometric analysis of the multidimensional effects of corruption upon FDI inflow

The goal of this thesis is to estimate the effect of corruption upon the levels of FDI inflow and it poses the following research question: What effect does corruption have upon the level of foreign direct investment inflow to a country? Moreover, do internal types of corruption (e.g. bureaucratic corruption), and external contexts (e.g. level of development) affect the manner in which corruption affects foreign direct investment inflow to a country? The thesis attempts to clear up a contention in the literature in which the effect of corruption upon FDI inflow is contested. It does this in two ways. First, proposing a theoretical framework to understand the effects corruption can have by fusing together elements from political risk theory and the OLI-paradigm. Second, using a relatively unused econometric method, which allows one to use a random effects model to distinguish between the effects which key independent variables have: (1) across time within" countries and (2) between" countries. Panel data from 1995 - 2012 are employed with a global coverage. The dataset is compiled from three different original datasets. The findings of the thesis suggests that the effect of corruption is on average negative for FDI inflow. However, the thesis also finds that the effect of corruption is very dependent on context. In some contexts, corruption is found to have a positive effect on FDI inflow in this thesis. Unfortunately, the data for different types of corruption are not good enough to perform reliable estimations. The results show in a clear manner that the contention in the field is due to systematic differences produced by different estimation techniques, and an overly simplified view of what corruption is. The suggested theoretical framework is able to explain the results and incorporate the different findings of the literature and this thesis by focusing on corruption as a multidimensional phenomenon.Master i Sammenliknende politikkSAMPOL350MASV-SAP

Gjøken og hjemlandet: Sanger i russisk samtidspropaganda

Artikkelen bygger på hypotesen om at sanger, som multimodale ytringer, har spilt en viktig rolle i russisk propaganda og patriotisk oppdragelse. Med utgangspunkt i en diskusjon om hva som gjør den sanglyriske sjangeren velegnet til bruk i massepåvirkningskampanjer, utforsker jeg hvordan denne ressursen er blitt utnyttet i russisk samtidspropaganda. Primærkildene mine er patriotiske sanger slik de er blitt presentert på konserter og i russiske medier de siste par tiårene. Kildematerialet inneholder både nyere sanger med eksplisitt nasjonalpatriotiske motiver og eldre låter i ulike sjangere. Når det gjelder eldre sanger, argumenterer jeg for at noen, som Viktor Tsojs «Kukusjka» («Gjøken») fra 1990, er blitt rekontekstualisert og resemiotisert for bruk i propaganda. Undersøkelsene mine av dette sangmaterialet gir grunnlag for å hevde at patriotiske sanger har bidratt til en gradvis rekonseptualisering av begrepet Ródina (Hjemlandet) og til å etablere helte- og fiendebilder. Nøkkelord Russisk sanglyrikk, propaganda, patriotisk oppdragelse Abstract This article is based on the hypothesis that songs, as multimodal utterances, have played an important role in Russian propaganda and patriotic upbringing. Starting from a discussion about what makes the song lyrical genre suitable for use in mass influence campaigns, I explore how this resource has been utilised in contemporary Russian propaganda. My primary sources are patriotic songs as presented at concerts and in the Russian media over the last couple of decades. The source material contains both newer songs with explicitly national patriotic motifs, and older tunes within various genres. As for older songs, I argue that some, such as Viktor Tsoi’s “Kukushka” (“The Cuckoo”) have been recontextualised and resemiotisised for propaganda purposes. My investigations of the collected song material provide grounds for claiming that patriotic songs may have contributed to a gradual reconceptualisation of the term Ródina (the Homeland) and to establish conceptions of heroes and enemies. Keywords Russian song lyrics, Propaganda, Patriotic upbringingpublishedVersio

Fra kollegafellesskap til ledelseshierarki? De pedagogiske lederne i barnehagens ledelsesprosess

In this article, it is argued that Early Childhood Education and Care management can be distributed on more persons than the director. Attention is directed towards the educational managers in the ECEC center departments in Norwegian ECEC, and their managerial responsibility. Interviews were conducted with 18 such managers in 10 different ECEC centers in order to examine their role in the managerial process of ECEC centers. The material seems to suggest that these department managers operate in a fairly hierarchical structure, and that they do not contribute in any collective management process for the entire center. They have a different management responsibility than the directors, and within a hierarchical framework, they exercise a significant management responsibility in their departments.Denne artikkelen argumenterer for at barnehageledelse kan være fordelt på flere personer enn styreren og fokuserer på ledelsesoppgavene til de pedagogiske lederne som leder de arbeidsgruppene som barnehagen har på grunnplanet. Dybdeintervjuer ble gjennomført med 18 pedagogiske ledere for å kaste lys over deres bidrag i barnehagens ledelsesprosess. Studien viser at som ledere er de plassert i en hierarkisk struktur og at de i liten grad er deltagere i kollektiv ledelse eller i barnehagens lederteam. De har en annen ledelsesprofil enn den vi finner i forskningen om styrere, og innenfor hierarkiske rammer har de et betydelig lederansvar på avdelingen.publishedVersio

Dissecting the Role of AXL in Cancer Immune Escape and Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Inhibition

The development and implementation of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICI) in clinical oncology have significantly improved the survival of a subset of cancer patients with metastatic disease previously considered uniformly lethal. However, the low response rates and the low number of patients with durable clinical responses remain major concerns and underscore the limited understanding of mechanisms regulating anti-tumor immunity and tumor immune resistance. There is an urgent unmet need for novel approaches to enhance the efficacy of ICI in the clinic, and for predictive tools that can accurately predict ICI responders based on the composition of their tumor microenvironment. The receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) AXL has been associated with poor prognosis in numerous malignancies and the emergence of therapy resistance. AXL is a member of the TYRO3-AXL-MERTK (TAM) kinase family. Upon binding to its ligand GAS6, AXL regulates cell signaling cascades and cellular communication between various components of the tumor microenvironment, including cancer cells, endothelial cells, and immune cells. Converging evidence points to AXL as an attractive molecular target to overcome therapy resistance and immunosuppression, supported by the potential of AXL inhibitors to improve ICI efficacy. Here, we review the current literature on the prominent role of AXL in regulating cancer progression, with particular attention to its effects on anti-tumor immune response and resistance to ICI. We discuss future directions with the aim to understand better the complex role of AXL and TAM receptors in cancer and the potential value of this knowledge and targeted inhibition for the benefit of cancer patients.publishedVersio

Measurement and modeling of volume scattering functions for phytoplankton from Norwegian coastal waters

The volume scattering function (VSF) describes the angular distribution of scattered light, and the VSF of phytoplankton is one of the most important inherent optical properties of oceanic water. Despite its importance, relatively few measurements of the VSF have been carried out in aquatic environments, and we present here data and analyses of measured VSFs at 442, 490, and 550 nm for 15 representative phytoplankton species from Norwegian coastal waters. In addition, the analytic scattering phase functions Henyey-Greenstein (HG) and Fournier-Forand, as well as Mie theory, were fitted and compared to the measured VSFs. The measured VSFs for all the species were strongly, but unequally forward peaked with HG-fitted asymmetry factors in the range 0.897–0.988. The VSF of Synechococcus sp., Phaeodactylum tricornutum, and Emiliania huxleyi (naked) had shoulders in the forward direction, whereas the VSF of the cylindrically shaped Chaetoceros calcitrans and Chaetoceros wighamii had minima in the backward direction. Results from this work indicate that internal structures influence the angular and spectral shape of the VSF more significantly than the morphology and size of the phytoplankton cells

5. Barnehagenes arbeid med overganger

publishedVersio

STRESS MEASUREMENTS AT HOT SPOTS USING STRESSPROBE

ABSTRACT The estimation stress concentration factor (SCF) of weld details of floating structures is critical parameter for fatigue life predictions. The common practice for predicting the SCF value is the use of code-specified empirical equations and through detailed finite element analysis (FEA) for critical joints. Under certain conditions, it becomes necessary to reassess the SCF value while the structure is in service. The most accurate approach is to measure the SCF value on the real joint since variations in FEA results always exist due to variation on modeling techniques by different analysts. While the use of strain gauges is the standard approach, applying strain gauges in service can be extremely complicated. Therefore, an alternative approach for direct measurement that does not require removal of coating and bonding to the surface is attractive. The StressProbe that takes advantage of the change in the magnetic permeability of steel due to the presence of a mechanical stress offers the required alternative as a non-contacting strain measurement method. The paper presents the results of a study to assess that capability of the StressProbe in measuring SCF value by measuring variations in strain in a high strain gradient region of a hopper corner detail that is typical in floating structures and compare the results with those obtained using both strain gauges and finite element analysis. The results show that the StressProbe can be used for the determination of the SCF at a weld under various scenarios and it can also be used to monitor cyclic stresses during periods when there is wave loading. While there is some variability in the StressProbe results but given the variability found with strain gauges it is considered that the StressProbe could be used to replace strain gauges

Intrinsic Differences in Spatiotemporal Organization and Stromal Cell Interactions Between Isogenic Lung Cancer Cells of Epithelial and Mesenchymal Phenotypes Revealed by High-Dimensional Single-Cell Analysis of Heterotypic 3D Spheroid Models

The lack of inadequate preclinical models remains a limitation for cancer drug development and is a primary contributor to anti-cancer drug failures in clinical trials. Heterotypic multicellular spheroids are three-dimensional (3D) spherical structures generated by self-assembly from aggregates of two or more cell types. Compared to traditional monolayer cell culture models, the organization of cells into a 3D tissue-like structure favors relevant physiological conditions with chemical and physical gradients as well as cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions that recapitulate many of the hallmarks of cancer in situ. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are prevalent in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), yet various mechanisms of acquired resistance, including epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), limit the clinical benefit of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFRi). Improved preclinical models that incorporate the complexity induced by epithelial-to-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) are urgently needed to advance new therapeutics for clinical NSCLC management. This study was designed to provide a thorough characterization of multicellular spheroids of isogenic cancer cells of various phenotypes and demonstrate proof-of-principle for the applicability of the presented spheroid model to evaluate the impact of cancer cell phenotype in drug screening experiments through high-dimensional and spatially resolved imaging mass cytometry (IMC) analyses. First, we developed and characterized 3D homotypic and heterotypic spheroid models comprising EGFRi-sensitive or EGFRi-resistant NSCLC cells. We observed that the degree of EMT correlated with the spheroid generation efficiency in monocultures. In-depth characterization of the multicellular heterotypic spheroids using immunohistochemistry and high-dimensional single-cell analyses by IMC revealed intrinsic differences between epithelial and mesenchymal-like cancer cells with respect to self-sorting, spatiotemporal organization, and stromal cell interactions when co-cultured with fibroblasts. While the carcinoma cells harboring an epithelial phenotype self-organized into a barrier sheet surrounding the fibroblasts, mesenchymal-like carcinoma cells localized to the central hypoxic and collagen-rich areas of the compact heterotypic spheroids. Further, deep-learning-based single-cell segmentation of IMC images and application of dimensionality reduction algorithms allowed a detailed visualization and multiparametric analysis of marker expression across the different cell subsets. We observed a high level of heterogeneity in the expression of EMT markers in both the carcinoma cell populations and the fibroblasts. Our study supports further application of these models in pre-clinical drug testing combined with complementary high-dimensional single-cell analyses, which in turn can advance our understanding of the impact of cancer-stroma interactions and epithelial phenotypic plasticity on innate and acquired therapy resistance in NSCLC.publishedVersio

Human organotypic airway and lung organoid cells of bronchiolar and alveolar differentiation are permissive to infection by influenza and SARS-CoV-2 respiratory virus

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the initiation of unprecedented research efforts to understand the pathogenesis mediated by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). More knowledge is needed regarding the cell type-specific cytopathology and its impact on cellular tropism. Furthermore, the impact of novel SARS-CoV-2 mutations on cellular tropism, alternative routes of entry, the impact of co-infections, and virus replication kinetics along the respiratory tract remains to be explored in improved models. Most applied virology models are not well suited to address the remaining questions, as they do not recapitulate the histoarchitecture and cellular composition of human respiratory tissues. The overall aim of this work was to establish from single biopsy specimens, a human adult stem cell-derived organoid model representing the upper respiratory airways and lungs and explore the applicability of this model to study respiratory virus infection. First, we characterized the organoid model with respect to growth pattern and histoarchitecture, cellular composition, and functional characteristics. Next, in situ expression of viral entry receptors, including influenza virus-relevant sialic acids and SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor ACE2 and TMPRSS2, were confirmed in organoids of bronchiolar and alveolar differentiation. We further showed successful infection by pseudotype influenza A H7N1 and H5N1 virus, and the ability of the model to support viral replication of influenza A H7N1 virus. Finally, successful infection and replication of a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 were confirmed in the organoids by TCID50 assay and immunostaining to detect intracellular SARS-CoV-2 specific nucleocapsid and dsRNA. The prominent syncytia formation in organoid tissues following SARS-CoV-2 infection mimics the findings from infected human tissues in situ. We conclude that the human organotypic model described here may be particularly useful for virology studies to evaluate regional differences in the host response to infection. The model contains the various cell types along the respiratory tract, expresses respiratory virus entry factors, and supports successful infection and replication of influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2. Thus, the model may serve as a relevant and reliable tool in virology and aid in pandemic preparedness, and efficient evaluation of antiviral strategies.publishedVersio