Using an online digital wall board to promote student activity in a library course

The content in library courses is highly relevant for students to perform well in their studies. But the material taught by librarians is usually not part of the curriculum and will not be tested directly in summative assessments. Students therefore tend to be passive and uninvolved in these lectures. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a digital online tool can help students to be more active and engaged. The proportion of students who used this tool to interact with the lecturer varied slightly among the different classes in the study, but the participation rate was relatively high overall. A lesson learned for later use of this kind of tool is that it is important to have planned how students should use the tool, and how the teaching must be organized to make that use possible.&nbsp

Mikroplastpartikler fra veg og trafikk : forekomst og konsentrasjoner i miljøet

The impact of roads and traffic on the environment have been studied for several decades, and negative impact on both the terrestrial and aquatic environment from pollutants have been demonstrated. Road pollution is typically related to high concentrations of particles, such as mineral particles (quartz, feldspar) and micro- and nanoparticles from the abrasion of tires and road surfaces. In recent years, the research interest for tire and road wear particles have increased substantially due to the increased research interest in micro- and nanoparticle pollution. As tires and some types of road surfaces contain synthetic rubbers, these particles are also included in the plastic pollution terminology as tire wear particles (TWP), tire wear particles combined with mineral particles (TRWP) and road wear particles with polymer-modified bitumen (RWPPMB). Road pollution is also typically high in particle-associated pollutants, such as metals (zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb)) and organic micropollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds (PAC), organophosphates compounds (OPC), benzothiazoles, hexa(methoxymethyl)melamine (HMMM) and N-1,3-dimethylbutyl-N 0-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine-quinone (6-PPD-quinone). Especially the acute toxic effect of 6-PPD-quinone and benzothiazoles in the environment have been linked to the release of tire wear particles. Roads and traffic are estimated as the largest source of microplastic particles (MP) from land to the marine environment, and TWP are estimated to be the main microplastic source, with abrasion particles from road markings (RMP) and RWPPMB as the second and third source. Road transport is an essential part of modern society and predictions estimate that the number of vehicles will almost double over the next 30 years. It is therefore crucial for the environment on the planet that road-associated microplastic particles (RAMP) are assessed and mitigated. To reliably assess the levels of RAMP and ensure correct and efficient mitigation measures, there is an urgent need for more environmental data. However, comparisons between current available data on RAMP are hampered by the lack of standardized methods for both sampling and analysis. There are currently several initiatives in the research community and on governmental level to harmonize the assessments of MP, such as Horizon2020-project EUROqCHARM (https://www.euroqcharm.eu/en). There are also efforts made to unify the analytical methods for TWP/TRWP specifically, such as the European TRWP Platform (https://www.csreurope.org/trwp). At the national level, several countries have implemented action plans against plastic pollution. In the National Transport Plan (NTP, 2022-2033), the Norwegian government have incorporated the need to improve the knowledge of microplastic release from roads and traffic and how to reduce the negative impact on the environment. The presented thesis aimed to contribute knowledge on the sources of MPs from roads and traffic, on the occurrence and concentrations of microplastic in different environmental compartments and to assess possible remedial actions for road-associated microplastic particles. To investigate potential new sources of RAMP, the microplastic concentrations in road de-icing salt from both sea salt and rock salt sources were assessed, and the annual release of microplastic particles from road de-icing salt in Scandinavia was estimated (Paper I). The results demonstrated that MPs are present in road de-icing salt in Scandinavia, however the contribution was negligible compared to the other three sources of RAMP previously identified. The annual release of MPs from road de-icing salt was estimated to contribute to less than 0.003% of the total estimated microplastic release, compared to TWP (90%), RM (9%) and RWPPMB (0.5%). However, the results support the need to identify and assess all sources of RAMP in order to evaluate the realistic levels of microplastic pollution and to reduce the negative impact on the environment. Although the work of this thesis focused on the high road salt consumption in Scandinavia, high salt consumption is also observed in several other countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the US, Canada and China. As different road de-icing salts are used in different countries, future research should assess the microplastic levels in the salts used locally to realistically address the annual release of microplastic particles from this source. One of the challenges with describing the environmental impact of MPs, including TWP and RWPPMB, is knowing what the relevant environmental concentrations are. Thus, reliable and comparable quantification methods must be developed so that these levels can be assessed across different studies in time and space, and between different environmental compartments. Current available literature presents several different analytical methods for analysing RAMP, mostly focused on TWP. For single-particle analysis, methods such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (SEM-EDX) and Micro-X-ray Fluorescence (µXRF) have been utilized. For mass concentration analysis, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), Liquid-Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), Thermal Desorption Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (TED-GC/MS) and Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (PYR-GC/MS) are the most used methods in current literature. For mass-based analysis, the challenge is finding suitable marker compounds that are reliable for both reference material and environmental samples, stable in different types of matrices and accessible for a high throughput of samples in order to establish environmental concentration levels across different types of samples. For PYR-GC/MS, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published two technical specifications for quantifying TWP/TRWP in soil/sediment and air samples. However, these methods are currently not adjusted for the presence of synthetic rubbers in the road surface wear layer (RWPPMB), such as styrene butadiene styrene rubbers (SBS) or scrap tires, which as applied in many countries for roads with high traffic volume. As SBS is currently the only rubber added to RWPPMB on state and county roads as well as some municipality roads of Norway, the current thesis aimed to improved quantification methods for TWP/TRWP and RWPPMB. The improved method (Paper II) proposed in this thesis utilizes multiple pyrolysis markers for the quantification of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and butadiene rubber (BR) from tires and SBS from the road surface in environmental samples. The suggested markers were benzene (mz 78), α-methylstyrene (mz 117), ethylstyrene (mz 118) and butadiene trimer (mz 91). The proposed markers substantially lowered the standard deviation of the results to 40% s.d. compared to 62% (4-VCH), 77% (SB dimer) and 85% (SBB trimer) for the single marker compounds proposed in previous studies. The multiple pyrolysis markers also demonstrated good recoveries in complex road matrices (88–104%), which further validated the strength of the method. The proposed method also included an improved calculation step from the measured rubber concentration to the mass of TWP and RWPPMB. This step included the use of local emission factors, traffic data and locally relevant reference tires. The calculations were performed with Monte Carlo simulation. The use of Monte Carlo simulation also enabled the uncertainties related to these calculations to be reported. Incorporating assessments of the uncertainty is important, as the rubber concentration in commercial tires are highly variable. The average percentage of SBR+BR rubbers in personal and heavy vehicles tires reported in the current thesis were 31% (of total tire tread) and 33%, respectively. However, for personal vehicles and heavy vehicles, the variation between different tire types and brands were large. These results differ substantially from previous studies were 40-50% SBR+BR have been assumed for all personal vehicle tires and 50% natural rubber (NR) have been proposed for truck tires. Thus, the use of locally relevant reference tires will improve the quantification of TWP in environmental samples. As TWP in the environment are exposed to other road particles on the road surface, tire wear particles are often reported as agglomerate particles mixed with mineral particles from the road, defined as tire and road wear particles (TRWP). Based on a limited number of studies, previous quantification methods assume that all TRWP particles contain TWP and minerals in a 1:1 ratio. In the present thesis, we propose an improved method for calculating TRWP based on the concentration of TWP and the current data available on mineral content for TRWP. The calculations for TRWP are also performed with Monte Carlo simulation. Even though the proposed method is hampered by the limited knowledge on mineral content of TRWP, it demonstrates the possibility to optimize quantification methods for locally relevant data, such as different road surfaces, different driving patterns or other variables, as future publications contribute with improved data. The improved quantification methods for TWP, RWPMB and TRWP were further used to analyse the concentration levels in roadside snow (Paper III) and in different compartments of a road tunnel (Paper IV). The TWP concentrations in roadside snow (76.0–14 500 mg/L meltwater; 222–109 000 mg/m2 mass loads) far exceeded concentration levels reported for snow and road runoff in previous studies, as well as the concentrations reported for tunnel wash water (TWW) in the present thesis (untreated: 14.5-47.8 mg/L; treated: 6.78-29.4 mg/L). As concentrations of RWPMB had not been assessed in previous studies, only comparison between the roadside snow (14.8–9550 mg/L; 50.0–28 800 mg/m2), the tunnel road surface (0.578-258 mg/m2) and the TWW (untreated: 11.5-38.1 mg/L; treated: 5.40-23.4 mg/L), in which the roadside snow has substantially higher concentrations compared to the tunnel samples. This demonstrates the potential for snow piles to accumulate RAMP and potentially pose a higher acute release risk to the environment compared to road runoff and tunnel wash water. Compared to the mass of total particles in the snow (TSS), the percentage of TWP and RWPMB combined were 5.7% (meltwater) and 5.2% (mass load). For the road tunnel, the concentrations of TWP, RWPPMB and TRWP were assessed for the road surface, the gully-pots and the TWW, including TWW after sedimentation treatment. The concentration on the road surface were significantly higher in the side bank area (TWP: 2650 ± 1120, RWPPMB : 2110 ± 892; TRWP: 3840 ± 1620 mg/m2) and the outlet area (TWP: 1520 ± 2210, RWPPMB : 1210 ± 1760; TRWP: 2200 ± 3200 mg/m2) compared to the other surface areas, suggesting that these are important areas for accumulation. The mass percentage of TWP, RWPPMB and TRWP were higher in the bank area (3.8%, 3.0% and 5.5%) and the outlet (6.4%, 5.1% and 9.2%) compared to the average mass percentage. For gully pots (GP), the highest concentration of TWP, RWPPMB and TRWP were reported from the inlet GP (TWP: 24.7 ± 26.9 mg/g, RWPPMB: 17.3 ± 48.8 mg/g, TRWP: 35.8 ± 38.9 mg/g). The mass percentage of TWP (5.4%), RWPPMB (4.3%) and TRWP (7.8%) were also higher at the inlet GP compared to the other gully pots. For the tunnel wash water, the mass percentage of TWP, RWPPMB and TRWP did not change substantially from the untreated TWW (TWP 2.1%, RWPPMB 1.7% and TRWP 3.0%) to the treated TWW (TWP 2.5%, RWPPMB 2.0% and TRWP 3.6%), although there was a small increase in the percentage for the treated water. The concentrations of TWP, RWPPMB and TRWP were 38.3 ± 10.5, 26.8 ±7.33 and 55.3 ±15.2 mg/L in the untreated TWW and 14.3 ± 6.84, 9.99 ±4.78 mg/L and 20.7 ±9.88 mg/L in the treated TWW, respectively. The current treatment of TWW for this tunnel (sedimentation) retained 63% of the RAMP and 69% of the TSS, indicating a lower retention efficiency for microplastic particles compared to the total particle load. The study on roadside snow also explored the different variables potentially explaining the variation of RAMP concentrations along roads. The road types (peri-urban highway, urban highway and urban city roads) were the most important variable explaining the variation, however, the main traffic variable was speed limit. This is contradictory to previous road studies, were Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) has been reported as the main explanatory variable. Other statistically significant explanatory variables were distance from the road and the combination of speed and AADT. The reported concentrations of TWP, RWPPMB and TRWP in roadside snow and the road tunnel both validates the improved analytical method proposed in this thesis and contributes new data on the environmental concentrations of RAMP. More data on environmental concentrations are needed in order to assess and evaluate the levels of microplastics from roads and traffic, from different types of roads, such as highways, urban roads and country-side areas, and for different traffic variables such as speed, AADT, inclination and road maintenance. It is also necessary to evaluate the efficiency of different types of measures taken to mitigate negative environmental impacts from road pollution, including MP. To be able to evaluate and assess the efficiency of different types of mitigation measures and types of water treatments used for road and tunnel runoff, it is important to increase the number of studies across different countries, climates, road types and driving patterns, as well as using comparable methods for sampling and analysis. In short, the presented thesis provides a validated analytical method for mass quantification of microplastic particles from tire and road wear in different environmental matrices, new knowledge on the concentration levels of RAMP in different environmental compartments including the retention efficiency of TWW treatment and new knowledge on potential new sources of MPs from roads and traffic. This thesis answers to the needs defined by Norwegian government (NTP, 2022-2033), as well as providing new and improved knowledge for the research community.Miljøpåvirkningen av vei og trafikk har blitt studert i flere tiår, og det er påvist at veiforurensing kan ha negativ påvirkning på både det terrestriske og akvatiske miljøet. Veiforurensning er typisk relatert til høye konsentrasjoner av partikler, som mineralpartikler (kvarts, feltspat) og mikro- og nanopartikler fra slitasje av bildekk og veidekker. De siste årene har forskningsinteressen for dekk- og veislitasjepartikler økt betydelig på grunn av den økte interessen for mikro- og nanoplast. Siden bildekk og enkelte typer veidekker inneholder syntetisk gummi, er disse slitepartiklene også inkludert i plastforurensningsterminologien som dekkslitasjepartikler (TWP), dekk og veislitasjepartikler (TRWP) og veislitasjepartikler med polymermodifisert bitumen (RWPPMB). Veiforurensning inneholder også typisk høye konsentrasjoner av partikkelbundet forurensning, som for eksempel metaller (sink (Zn), kobber (Cu), kadmium (Cd), nikkel (Ni), bly (Pb)) og organiske miljøgifter, som polysykliske aromatiske hydrokarbon-forbindelser (PAC), organofosfat-forbindelser (OPC), benzotiazoler, heksa(metoksymetyl)melamin (HMMM) og N-1,3-dimetylbutyl-N 0-fenyl-p-fenylendiamin-kinon (6-PPD-kinon). Særlig de akutte toksiske effektene av 6-PPD-kinon og benzotiazoler i miljøet har vært knyttet til utslipp av dekkslitasjepartikler. Vei og trafikk er estimert som den største kilden til mikroplastpartikler (MP) fra land til havmiljø, og TWP/TRWP er estimert til å være den viktigste mikroplastkilden, med slitasjepartikler fra veimerking (RM) og veislitasjepartikler med polymermodifisert bitumen (RWPPMB) som de nest største og tredje største kildene

Does a Female Leadership Influence Staff Satisfaction in Microfinance Institutions?

Master's thesis Business Administration BE501 - University of Agder 2018The purpose of this study was to obtain a better understanding of whether or not a female CEO influences staff satisfaction in MFIs. The microfinance industry has faced rapid growth and stiffer competition in recent decades, where the main MFI challenge being the loss of important and competent staff. Managers should, to prevent staff from leaving their jobs, ensure that the staff is satisfied with the workplace. In this study, a final data set with 225 MFIs from 59 countries in the time period from 2003 to 2015 was applied to the data analyses. A multiple regression model was carried out, findings showing that a female leader has no significant influence on staff satisfaction in an MFI. However, findings showed that the interaction between a female CEO and female staff above a threshold of 70 % positively influenced staff satisfaction. The implications of this study are that if an MFI is recruiting a new CEO to improve staff satisfaction, then the gender of the leader is insignificant. There is, however, one exception. MFIs with a female staff proportion equal to or above 70 % can benefit from having a female leader. Future studies can benefit from investigating whether other aspects influence staff satisfaction. A more qualitative approach could also provide better insight into what personal traits influence staff satisfaction. Future research could, furthermore, examine whether the interaction between a female leader and female staff above a threshold of 70 % influences other aspects of MFI performance

Do Norwegian bond funds create value?

Performance evaluations of Norwegian bond mutual funds have until this date received limited attention. The introduction of updated credit-indices by Nordic Bond Pricing, has allowed for new opportunities to analyse funds of this major asset class. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate whether Norwegian bond mutual funds are capable of creating value. In the study, we examine investment grade funds over two separate sampleperiods from 2010-2019 and 2015-2019. The thesis employ three separate approaches for evaluating whether funds are able to create value, namely active return, value added and factor models. Our findings indicate that the average Norwegian bond fund is capable of creating value compared to proper benchmarks. However, none of the generated value benefits investors. Further, we find that the apparent value creation relates to exposure toward common risk factors and not from fund managers possessing skill. When employing factor models, not a single fund exhibit a positive significant performance neither gross nor net of expenses. The sign and significance are robust across all factor models applied. The results of this thesis are important as funds for a long period of time have been compared to inappropriate indices, misleading investors. As an extension of the performance analysis, we consider whether it is possible to identify funds by examining their characteristics. Fund age, assets under management (AUM) and expense ratio are evaluated. Our findings suggest that funds with a high AUM are able to outperform others both gross and net of expenses. In addition, we find evidence that funds with high expense ratios generate higher returns gross of expenses. Keywords – Bonds, Bond funds, Nordic Bond Pricing, Active management, Factor exposure, CAPMnhhma

Actions Are Needed to Deal with the High Uncertainties in Tire Wear Particle Analyses

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Preprint arXiv: 2106.05030 Submitted on 9 Jun 2021

Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, which effectively describe dissipative systems, and analogue gravity models, which simulate properties of gravitational objects, comprise seemingly different areas of current research. Here, we investigate the interplay between the two by relating parity-time-symmetric dissipative Weyl-type Hamiltonians to analogue Schwarzschild black holes emitting Hawking radiation. We show that the exceptional points of these Hamiltonians form tilted cones mimicking the behavior of the light cone of a radially infalling observer approaching a black hole horizon. We further investigate the presence of tunneling processes, reminiscent of those happening in black holes, in a concrete example model. We interpret the non-trivial result as the purely thermal contribution to analogue Hawking radiation in a Schwarzschild black hole. Assuming that our particular Hamiltonian models a photonic crystal of experimental relevance, we argue that the loss from the latter in the form of thermal radiation can be interpreted as the blackbody contribution to analogue black hole radiation when measuring at the exceptional cone. As such, these systems are promising candidates for black hole analogue models

Evaluation of a Simple Clinical Language Paradigm With Respect to Sensory Independency, Functional Asymmetry, and Effective Connectivity

The present study replicates a known visual language paradigm, and extends it to a paradigm that is independent from the sensory modality of the stimuli and, hence, could be administered either visually or aurally, such that both patients with limited sight or hearing could be examined. The stimuli were simple sentences, but required the subject not only to understand the content of the sentence but also to formulate a response that had a semantic relation to the content of the presented sentence. Thereby, this paradigm does not only test perception of the stimuli, but also to some extend sentence and semantic processing, and covert speech production within one task. When the sensory base-line condition was subtracted, both the auditory and visual version of the paradigm demonstrated a broadly overlapping and asymmetric network, comprising distinct areas of the left posterior temporal lobe, left inferior frontal areas, left precentral gyrus, and supplementary motor area. The consistency of activations and their asymmetry was evaluated with a conjunction analysis, probability maps, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). This underlying network was further analyzed with dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to explore whether not only the same brain areas were involved, but also the network structure and information flow were the same between the sensory modalities. In conclusion, the paradigm reliably activated the most central parts of the speech and language network with a great consistency across subjects, and independently of whether the stimuli were administered aurally or visually. However, there was individual variability in the degree of functional asymmetry between the two sensory conditions.publishedVersio

Sladrehank skal selv ha bank! : om samfunnets og lesernes vurdering av Se og hør i det kulturelle hierarki

Denne hovedfagsoppgaven tar utgangspunkt i den kulturelle posisjonen til Norges største ukeblad, Se og Hør. Kjendis- og aktualitetsbladet har vært en opplagsmessig suksess siden lanseringen i 1978, med over 2 millioner ukentlige lesere i 2006. Likevel har bladet en umiskjennelig lav posisjon i Norges kulturelle hierarki. Jeg søker å finne forklaringer på dette paradokset, og benytter mine undersøkelser som bakgrunn for intervjuer med ti av bladets lesere. Hva er deres holdning til bladet og dets posisjon? Hvordan påvirker bladets lave kulturelle status deres lesning, og hvorfor leser de det likevel? Ved å stille spørsmål ved det som synes selvsagt, viser denne oppgaven at forholdet mellom bladet og offentligheten generelt, og mellom bladet og leserne er langt mer komplekst enn den generelle debatten tilsier. I en avsluttende diskusjon vurderer jeg hvorvidt lesingen av Se og Hør kan relateres til Pierre Bourdieus begreper om kulturell kapital og smak

Drama og dramatisk lek

Problemstilling: Hvordan kan arbeid med drama være med på å inspirere barns dramatiske lek?publishedVersio