Love, space-time, and language: a taste of Norwegian culture

by Alex Mellbye, MSc Sociology student at LSE I would daresay that one of the reasons people are drawn to sociology is an aim for self-understanding, at least, this is certainly my case. However, as all who do sociology are aware of, the self, or to put it a different way, identity, is always contextual. For me now, the context for my identity is nationality. After all, English is not my native language, I am not British, I have no family in London, yet here I am. A Viking descended from the cold hard north of Norway. Not for plunder or women (although neither would hurt), but for that vainglorious goal of study and knowledge. It is within this context then that I find myself reflecting on where I am from as opposed to where I am now – which is to say, by living in England I have become more aware and reflective of what it means to be a Norwegian. By writing this blog post I am therefore hoping and attempting to present a perhaps somewhat logically consistent sketch of what I at least would consider the core aspects of Norwegian culture

Weight loss methods and symptoms of eating disorders in Norwegian combat sports athletes: A cross-sectional study

Masteroppgave - Norges idrettshøgskole, 2023Purpose: To explore weight loss methods, eating disorder (ED) symptoms, explanatory factors, and differences in ED symptoms across gender, experience levels, and disciplines among a diverse sample of adult Norwegian combat sports athletes. Methods: Self-reported data from a larger cross-sectional study was utilized. Participants responded to an electronic questionnaire on health, competition, eating, and sport-specific behaviors. The Eating Disorder Examination - Questionnaire (EDE-Q) was included to assess ED symptoms among the participants. Results: The final data material consisted of 187 participants. In total, 88% of the participants had practiced some form of weight regulation in the last 12 months. Restricting energy intake, increasing exercise levels, and restricting carbohydrate intake were the most common weight loss methods practiced by both male and female combat sports athletes. Of the combat sports athletes viable for analysis (166), 46% displayed symptoms of EDs, whereas 49% and 40% were observed among the male and female groups, respectively. Significant differences in ED symptoms were found across gender and experience level, whereas no significant differences were observed across combat sports disciplines. Combat sports exercise volume and body mass index (BMI) were significant explanatory factors for ED symptoms among the athletes. Conclusion: The study sheds light on the prevalence of weight regulation practice among Norwegian combat sports athletes, highlighting the predominance of what can be regarded as safe weight loss methods. However, a considerable proportion of the athletes displayed symptoms of ED, whereas a higher proportion was found among the male athletes compared to the female athletes. As such, these results warrant a need for action regarding early identification of disordered eating behavior, as this may safeguard combat sports athletes mental and physical health. The findings provide further insight of potential groups which may be at an increased risk of ED symptoms and identifies possible explanatory factors for these behaviors.Institutt for idrettsmedisinske fag / Department of Sports Medicin

A situation-specific solution to Freedman's paradox

Noen forskningsprosjekter baserer seg i stor grad på p-verdier for variabelvalg og rapportering av styrken på variablers relasjon til responsvariabelen. Det er vist at denne måten å utføre forklarende modellering fører til overestimering av parameterestimatenes størrelse. Hensikten med denne oppgaven er å presentere en alternativ og forbedret måte å utføre forklarende modellering med flere imputerte datasett. Oppgaven introduserer lasso, MICE prosedyren, kryssvalidering og bootstrap metoden, samt hvordan disse kombineres i en algoritme for å produsere pålitelige parameterestimater og tilhørende konfidensintervall. Resultatene viser en betydelig overestimering av parameterestimatene ved bruk av den p-verdi baserte metoden og konkluderer med at den foreslåtte metoden er å foretrekke.Some research uses p-values to a large extent for variable selection and the reporting of variables' explanatory power. However, this way of performing explanatory modelling has been shown to overestimate the parameter estimates. The purpose of this thesis is to present an alternative and improved way of performing explanatory modelling with multiple imputed data sets. The thesis introduces lasso, the multivariate imputation by chained equation procedure, cross-validation and the bootstrap; as well as how these are combined in a scheme to produce reliable parameter estimates and corresponding confidence intervals. The results obtained show a considerable overestimation of the parameter estimates from the p-value based approach and conclude that the proposed method is preferable

Large Area Patterning of Embedded Magnetic Nanostructures in Complex Oxide Thin Films

Complex oxide materials exhibit a wide range of functional properties, making them interesting for future use in electronic and spintronic devices. Through nanopatterning of thin film structures, magnetic shape effects can be investigated. A novel patterning method, combining substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) with ion implantation, was used to pattern areas up to 7.5x7.5 mm² of identical ferromagnetic nanoscale lines in thin films of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) and LaFeO3 (LFO). The pattern had a linewidth of 160 nm and a pitch of 400 nm, and the lines were embedded in a paramagnetic matrix. In order to perform SCIL on square substrates, an adapter was manufactured in order for the samples to fit on a two-inch SCIL wafer chuck. A dual-layer mask of Amonil and PMMA resists with a total thickness of approximately 180 nm was shown to work successfully as an implantation mask for 50 keV Ar+ ions that disrupted the magnetic order of the unprotected areas of the thin film. Investigation of the patterned thin film by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) shows that the patterning process yields high-quality ferromagnetic nanostructures with clear shape-induced magnetic anisotropy. The nanoscale pattern in the thin film shows a saturation magnetic moment of 3.2 µ_B per Mn, which is somewhat lower than the bulk value of 3.7 µ_B per Mn. Parallel to the nanoscale line pattern, a coercivity of 290 Oe was measured at 50 K, while a coercivity of 125 Oe was measured perpendicular to the line pattern

Gaussian Processes for long-term trajectory prediction using historical AIS data

For at autonome overflate-fartøyer (ASVer) skal kunne operere trygt er det essensielt med robuste antikollisjonssystemer. Slike systemer innebærer ikke bare at et fartøy må kunne reagere i det det oppstår farlige situasjoner, men også evnen til å proaktivt unngå situasjoner med høy risiko. Fartøyene er dermed nødt til å gjenkjenne ulike scenarioer og kunne planlegge for potensielle hendelser frem i tid. Denne fremtidsforståelsen er temaet i denne oppgaven, og målet er å utforske hvordan historisk data fra Automatisk Identifikasjonssystem (AIS) kan brukes til å predikere skips fremtidige bevegelser. Mer spesifikt foreslår denne oppgaven to metoder som begge benytter Gaussiske Prosesser til å lære bevegelsesmønsteret til skip i ulike scenarier basert på historiske data. Motivasjonen bak bruken av Gaussiske Prosesser er basert på dens intuitive tolkning som en statistisk fordeling over funksjoner. En slik representasjon kan dermed naturlig innlemme usikkerhet knyttet til prediksjonene som en sentral del av modellen. Et Bayesiansk statistisk rammeverk brukes i tråd med Gaussiske Prosesser for å eksplisitt vurdere den underliggende usikkerheten. Den første foreslåtte metoden bruker et rammeverk basert på Gaussiske Prosesser direkte for å modellere posisjon i banen som en funksjon av tid. Denne tilnærmingen fungerer rimelig bra, bortsett fra i nærvær av forgrenede trafikkfelt. Formuleringen av metoden gjør strenge antakelser om unimodalitet og er ikke i stand til å representere noen form for multimodal usikkerhet. Som en mer indirekte tilnærming forsøker den andre metoden å bruke en Gaussisk Prosess til å beskrive en latent bevegelsesmodell og bruke den til å simulere baner numerisk. Denne formuleringen er langt mer fleksibel og er i teorien i stand til å uttrykke multimodale fordelinger for de predikerte banene. Å kombinere denne tilnærmingen med et prediksjonssystem basert på et Utvidet Kalman Filter (EKF) for å simulere baner fungerer bra så lenge banene er tilstrekkelig glatte, slik at en Taylor-approksimasjon av bevegelsesmodellen fungerer som en rimelig tilnærming. Disse antagelsene gjør imidlertid denne metoden mer skjør enn den første metoden. Begge metodene testes grundig på et reelt AIS-datasett samlet fra Trondheimsfjorden i løpet av ett år, og den statistiske ytelsen til begge metodene sammenlignes. Konsistensen av usikkerhetsestimatene blir også testet for å undersøke om metodene er i stand til å nøyaktig kunne representere den underliggende usikkerheten.An essential aspect of safe operations of Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) is a robust Collision Avoidance (COLAV) system. In addition to the ability to react to dangerous situations, it is also highly beneficial for the COLAV to be able to proactively avoid high-risk scenarios. In order to do so, the ASV requires solid situational awareness and the ability to understand how the future might unfold given a current scenario. Predicting the future behaviour of surrounding vessels is the topic of this thesis. By utilizing historical data from Automatic Identification System (AIS), the goal is to predict the trajectories of vessels into the future. Two methods based on a Gaussian Process (GP) framework are proposed. The GP's intuitive interpretation as a statistical distribution over functions allows the predictions to also incorporate uncertainty as a first-class citizen of the model. A Bayesian statistical framework is applied to always explicitly consider the underlying uncertainty when performing predictions. The first proposed method directly applies the GP framework to model the trajectories as a function of time. This approach works reasonably well, except for in the presence of branching traffic lanes. This formulation makes strict assumptions about unimodality and is unable to represent any form of multimodal uncertainty. As a more indirect approach, the second method attempts to use a GP to describe a latent motion model and use it to simulate trajectories numerically. This formulation is far more flexible and is, in theory, able to express multimodal trajectory distributions. Combining this approach with an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF)-based prediction scheme to simulate trajectories works well as long as the trajectories are sufficiently smooth, such that a Taylor approximation of the motion model serves as a reasonable approximation. These assumptions do, however, make this method more fragile than the first method. Both methods are tested extensively on a real AIS dataset collected from the Trondheim fjord over the course of one year, and the statistical performance of both methods are compared. The consistency of the uncertainty estimates is also tested to investigate whether the methods are able to accurately represent the true underlying uncertainty

Seafarers’ depression and suicide

This review assesses available evidence on the frequency of and trends in depression and suicide among seafarers. Investigations of depression and suicide are scarce and the findings are inconsistent, they do, nevertheless, show indications of improvement although some recent case series do indicate that suicide remains a problem. A review of additional indicators for mental distress and lack of wellbeing supports the decline in frequency of problems, but nuances this in terms of the relative risks in different groups of seafarers, showing internal variations in the frequency of mental health issues among seafarers, with markers such as rank, type of voyage, gender, age, nationality and crew multiculturalism being relevant variables. The methodological limitations that hinder the understanding of depression and suicide in the maritime sector are identified

Surface limed soil - six years later

Published September 1992. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Gm Allotypes in Mother-Father-Cord Trios 1

When tested at a standard dilution (I:30), mother-cord Gm phenotypes are identical. A more sensitive assay reveals that the fetus does possess paternal antigen, that is, does produce small amounts of autologous IgG. The paternal antigens, in both the mother and the cord plasma, appear in a mosaic, one that suggests the fetus has the ability to selectively transfer his own IgG subclasses to the mother.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75448/1/j.1423-0410.1979.tb02277.x.pd

Effectiveness of title III, ESEA in selected schools of the Oregon Small Schools Program July 1, 1966 to June 30, 1970

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in selected schools of the Oregon Small Schools Project. Specifically, the objectives were to analyze: 1. To what extent were the objectives of the OSSP accomplished. 2. To what degree did school size affect the accomplishment of the objectives. 3. To what degree did geographic location influence the accomplishment of the objectives. 4. To what degree did opinions of administrators and school board members differ about the effectiveness of the program. Twenty schools of the OSSP were selected to participate in the study. The respondents included the superintendent and a board member from each of the schools. The data obtained from the board members were used solely for analyzing for comparative purposes with the data provided by the superintendents. To provide for the analysis of the influence of school size and geographic location, schools were classified as to whether they had 100 student enrollment and whether located East or West of the Cascade Mountains. The analysis of the extent of the accomplishment of the objectives was based on the mean scores of all responses through rating scales. Statistical analyses were made by utilizing the F-Test to indicate if significant differences were present. Analysis was based on the .05 level of significance. Findings: From the findings of the study, the following implications were drawn: 1. That there was slightly less than a moderate accomplishment of the objectives of the Oregon Small School Program during the four year project period, as determined by the data. 2. That the location of the school did not significantly influence the degree that the objectives of the program were accomplished, except in two areas: A. "staff involvement in decision making" was rated above a considerable accomplishment by the west superintendents, while east superintendents rated the accomplishment moderate. B. "development and implementation of shared guidance services" was rated above a moderate accomplishment by the east superintendents, while west superintendents rated it considerably less than limited. 3. That the size of the school was not a significant factor in the degree of the program's accomplishment, except in the following areas: A. "administrative and staff communication" B. "opportunities for staff to serve as instructional leaders" C. "the improvement of career information opportunities to students" D, "providing information on effective programs" E. "implementation of shared guidance services" All significant differences resulted from larger schools rating the accomplishment higher than did the schools with smaller enrollments. Recommendations: As a result of the findings of this study, the writer offers the following recommendations: 1. The Oregon Small Schools Program should make a concerted effort to involve organizations within the communities, develop cooperative sharing and provide for improved communication. 2. Develop and implement a program with the teacher preparatory institutions designed to more adequately serve the small schools. 3. Participants in the program should increasingly utilize the resources of the Oregon Board of Education and provide for continuing evaluation and assessment of the program's objectives. 4. The program should make every effort to increase the participation of schools and provide information on on-going activities of the schools. 5. That direction of the program continue to incorporate the objectives and priorities of the Oregon Board of Education to assure consistency with the statewide educational program. 6. An inventory study should be made among personnel and staff of the CSSP to determine the opinions of board members, administrators and staff members relative to the small schools program and its role. 7. Further study should be made to assist in clarifying the role of the Oregon Board of Education, schools of education, local school districts, and other agencies in stimulating change. 8. The degree of continuation of Title III, ESEA programs after federal funds have terminated and the effect of Title III on school districts not actively participating in the programs should be determined