Hvordan kan barnehagen tilpasse opplæringen til flerspråklige barn med sen språkutvikling?

Mange barnehagebarn med flerspråklig bakgrunn tilegner seg majoritetsspråket som en naturlig del av språkutviklingen. Med språket kommer også sosialiseringsprosessene og man ser barnegruppen som en kommunikativ helhet. Det er derimot noen barn som har vansker med å tilegne seg språk, og kan havne utenfor de uformelle og pedagogstyrte sosialiseringsarenaene. For disse barna blir det viktig å sette inn ressurser og tiltak for å så tidlig som mulig forsøke å motvirke at språket blir et hinder for videre utvikling. Språkvansker er et stort og komplekst begrep. Det kan være en møysommelig jobb å finne frem til diagnostiske årsaker som forklarer vanskene, og en av utfordringer fagfolk står ovenfor når det gjelder et barn med annet morsmål enn norsk, er blant annet mulighetene til detaljert kartlegging og vurdering. Et av motivene for denne oppgaven er å se på hvordan vi kan gi barna støtte så tidlig som mulig, slik at de får en god opplevelse av å være aktør i egne omgivelser

Atomic-level structure characterization of an ultrafast folding mini-protein denatured state

Atomic-level analyses of non-native protein ensembles constitute an important aspect of protein folding studies to reach a more complete understanding of how proteins attain their native form exhibiting biological activity. Previously, formation of hydrophobic clusters in the 6 M urea-denatured state of an ultrafast folding mini-protein known as TC5b from both photo-CIDNP NOE transfer studies and FCS measurements was observed. Here, we elucidate the structural properties of this mini-protein denatured in 6 M urea performing 15N NMR relaxation studies together with a thorough NOE analysis. Even though our results demonstrate that no elements of secondary structure persist in the denatured state, the heterogeneous distribution of R2 rate constants together with observing pronounced heteronuclear NOEs along the peptide backbone reveals specific regions of urea-denatured TC5b exhibiting a high degree of structural rigidity more frequently observed for native proteins. The data are complemented with studies on two TC5b point mutants to verify the importance of hydrophobic interactions for fast folding. Our results corroborate earlier findings of a hydrophobic cluster present in urea-denatured TC5b comprising both native and non-native contacts underscoring their importance for ultra rapid folding. The data assist in finding ways of interpreting the effects of pre-existing native and/or non-native interactions on the ultrafast folding of proteins; a fact, which might have to be considered when defining the starting conditions for molecular dynamics simulation studies of protein folding

Bluetooth Angle of Departure for indoor industrial environments: Improving Carrier Frequency Offset estimation and exploiting frequency-dependent reflections to reduce measurement error

Bluetooth 5.1 introduserte en egenskap kalt 'Direction Finding' som gjør det mulig for two Bluetooth enheter å finne vinkelen mellom hverandre med hjelp av antenne-array. Men Bluetooth spesifikasjonen spesifiserer ikke mer enn lav-nivå antennemåling og bytting, og det er opp til programmereren å prosessere dataen til vinkel-estimater. Dette er ikke trivielt. En del av oppgaven er å forbedre Carrier Frequency Offset estimering (som er et stort problem for Bluetooth direction finding) slik at den kan kjøres i sanntid på innvevde systemer. Dette gjøres med teknikker fra numerisk optimisering og resultatet er en metode som er flere ganger raskere enn tidligere. En klassisk beamformer fra fagbøker brukes for vinkelestimering, men en stor utfordring er refleksjoner som negativt påvirker vinkel-estimatene. Det er ikke lett å finne informasjon på hvordan disse effektene kan reduseres. Vi benytter simuleringer og eksperimenter i et AutoStore varelager for å undersøke tre hypoteser: H1: Refleksjoner er svært frekvensavhengige ved innendørs bruk på grunn av geometrien til refleksjonene og den direkte målingen: En liten endring i bølgelengde endrer resultatet annerledes for de to signalene. H2: Kombinering av flere frekvenser gir bedre resultat H3: Å lete etter flere løsninger av vinkler er viktig Alle disse tre er vist både teoretisk og praktisk til å stemme. Vi viser at å benytte flere frekvenser kan redusere snittfeilen fra 19.3 grader til 3 grader i noen tilfeller. Forfatteren av denne oppgaven er ansatt hos AutoStore hvor han jobber med et prosjekt som stammer fra bacheloroppgaven hans. Resultatet av denne masteroppgaven kan være interessant for AutoStore og firmaet har tillatt bruk av deres testanlegg og støttet prosjektet med omtrent 20.000 NOK i utstyr og reiseutgifter.Bluetooth 5.1 introduced the feature 'Direction Finding' which allows bluetooth devices to estimate the direction from one device to another by the use of antenna arrays. But the specification does not specify more than the low-level antenna switching and sampling and it is left to the programmer to bridge the gap from raw data to direction estimates. This is not trivial. Part of the work in this thesis is improving real-time Carrier Frequency Offset estimation (a critical issue in Bluetooth direction finding) by optimizing an existing solution with numerical optimization techniques to increase computational performance by several orders of magnitude. A conventional beamformer from the litterature is used for direction estimation, but a major challenge is reflections which alter the output of the direction finder and there is little information in the litterature as to how those can be mitigated. To this end we use both simulations and real-world experiments in an AutoStore warehouse directed toward three main hypotheses: H1: Reflections are highly frequency dependent in indoor situations due to the geometry of the reflection and direct path: A slight change in wavelength changes the output of each path differently. H2: Combining multiple channels compensates for reflection-caused errors in some cases H3: Searching for multiple solutions of the direction finder is important All three are shown both theoretically and experimentally to be correct. We show that using multiple channels can reduce the RMSE is direction finding from 19.3 degrees to 3 degrees in some cases. The author is currently employed at AutoStore where he works on a separate project spawned from the bachelors thesis. The result of this masters thesis could be of interest to AutoStore and the company have allowed the use of their testsite and provided around 20k NOK in equipment and travel expenses

Rate of avoidable deaths in a Norwegian hospital trust as judged by retrospective chart review.

BACKGROUND: The proportion of avoidable hospital deaths is challenging to estimate, but has great implications for quality improvement and health policy. Many studies and monitoring tools are based on selected high-risk populations, which may overestimate the proportion. Mandatory reporting systems, however, under-report. We hypothesise that a review of an unselected sample of hospital deaths will provide an estimate of avoidability in-between the estimates from these methods. METHODS: A retrospective case record review of an unselected population of 1000 consecutive non-psychiatric hospital deaths in a Norwegian hospital trust was conducted. Reviewers evaluated to what degree each death could have been avoided, and identified problems in care. RESULTS: We found 42 (4.2%) of deaths to be at least probably avoidable (more than 50% chance of avoidability). Life expectancy was shortened by at least 1 year among 34 of the 42 patients with an avoidable death. Patients whose death was found to be avoidable were less functionally dependent compared with patients in the non-avoidable death group. The surgical department had the greatest proportion of such deaths. Very few of the avoidable deaths were reported to the hospital's report system. CONCLUSIONS: Avoidable hospital deaths occur less frequently than estimated by the national monitoring tool, but much more frequently than reported through mandatory reporting systems. Regular reviews of an unselected sample of hospital deaths are likely to provide a better estimate of the proportion of avoidable deaths than the current methods

Design and development of a Remotely Operated Vehicle for inspection of- and fish collection in Aquaculture Facilities

A concept for a lightweight Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) named the Manta was designed for inspection of the net cages and collection of dead fish at aquaculture facilities. The current thesis presents the initial development and engineering design of the product, including requirements and need findings, material selection, technical solutions and design verification by the finite element method. The Manta has a streamlined body with an internal cavity. Three vertical thrusters are mounted into thin wings on the exterior of the hull, and two horizontal thrusters are located inside the hull cavity. The ROV will use the suction through the hull created by the main thrusters to collect the dead fish into a rear-mounted net. Harsh environment and rough handling will require a robust design- and material selection. The hull of the Manta has been designed and engineered based on the currently chosen components, which may be changed in the future. Based on the combination of easy manufacturing, good impact properties, low density and low cost, ABS plastic was selected as material for the hull. The hull design is based on 4 mm thick ABS plastic sheets manufactured by vacuum forming, with a total component weight equal to 6,6kg. The sections are joined together by adhesives and bolts. The estimated manufacturing cost of the hull is approximately 2000 NOK per unit including tool cost for 100 units. The vertical thrusters, which are located in the wings, must have a low profile. A mechanical design of a so-called rim-driven thruster (RDT) has been developed and the current design has a predicted weight of 1,7kg. This is a design where the propeller is fitted permanent magnets on an outer ring instead of being powered by a centre axle. The resulting geometry has a significantly lower profile than conventional ROV thrusters, and a higher torque per length ratio. A thruster prototype and a special designed test rig for the prototype has been developed and manufactured at the IPM workshop. This test rig has been submitted to Argus for completion of their electromagnetic design. Commercially available thrusters will be used for horizontal propulsion. These thrusters have to be streamlined since they are oriented parallel to the main direction of travel, as opposed to the vertical thrusters. The RMI 1000 thruster from RoboMarine Indonesia is the most relevant candidate, with a weight of 2kg and a 200N nominal thrust force. The ROV now has an estimated total weight of 29kg, which is within the limits set by the requirements. The final weight may, however, differ slightly due to the uncertainties of the thrusters mass

Numerical and experimental investigation of a hinged 5-body wave energy converter

This thesis deals with modeling and simulation of a hinged 5 body wave energy converter (WEC), including verification by comparison with experimental results. The WEC consists of a shallow draft cylindrical center floater hinged to 4 semisubmerged spherical buoys. One important design feature is that the hinges are submerged such that the buoys will move in a diagonal-like mode of motion. In the first part of the thesis, the linear theory of power absorption by oscillating bodies is reviewed, having particular emphasis on multi-degree-offreedom systems and optimization of power take-off parameters bounded by motion amplitude constraints (and a few other constraints). The major part of the thesis deals with time domain analysis and address some modeling challenges associated with the hinged 5-body WEC and similar WECs. These modeling challenges are associated with: • Strongly frequency dependent added mass and damping and a long hydrodynamic “memory”, representing a challenge when a time domain representation of the radiation forces are sought in the form of a state space model. • Complex equations of motion accounting for rigid hinge constraints. • Large angular motion, particularly in the hinges, giving rise to inertia force nonlinearities. • Large amplitude motion giving rise to greatly varying wetted body surface, making the validity of linear hydrodynamic theory questionable. The first challenge is addressed by introducing a new frequency domain identification technique, originally developed for complex electrical networks, which (to the author’s knowledge) have not been used on hydrodynamic radiation forces before. Assessment and enforcement of the physical property of passivity of the obtained state space models (related to the stability of the equations of motion) will also be addressed. We show that the method is capable of obtaining passive and accurate state space radiation models for the hinged 5- body WEC and an even more challenging system consisting of 17 equidistant circular cylinders. Equations of motion (EOM) for the hinged 5-body WEC are developed assuming rigid hinge constraints and by using a minimal number of generalized coordinates. Large angular motions are accounted for. We show that by describing the velocities of all bodies in the body fixed frame of the center floater, the EOM simplify significantly. The large angular motion yields inertia force nonlinearities manifested as a hinge angle dependent mass matrix and a Coriolis-Centrifugal force term. However, a numerical study of the hinged 5-body WEC in a typical operating condition shows that a linearized EOM, assuming small angles, will suffice when the aim is to predict the mean power absorption. Still, the inertia force nonlinearities yields nonlinear behavior and affects the largest maxima and minima significantly, especially in the pitch mode of the center floater. The most important type of nonlinearity is associated with the greatly varying submergence of the bodies, especially for the buoys. In the numerical model, this nonlinearity is accounted for in a simplified manner by including nonlinear Froude-Krylov and restoring forces, while still relying on linear radiation and diffraction forces. The aim of the experiments conducted as part of the thesis work was to verify the numerical model. In addition, different numerical models based on different physical assumptions have been compared. The experiments included five sea states corresponding to typical operating conditions. The overprediction of mean absorbed power by the simulation model in these sea states is between - 15% (underprediction) and 18%. When the Froude-Krylov and restoring forces are linearized in the traditional manner, the overprediction range from 60%, in a sea state producing large amplitude motion, down to 15%, occurring for a milder sea state. The experiments revealed that mean and low frequency motions of the same order of magnitude as the wave frequency motions are present in all modes of motion except for the collective heave mode. The nonlinear simulation model captures this effect with reasonable accuracy. One interesting finding is that the mean and low frequency surge motion is well captured without inclusion of the explicit second order wave forces traditionally used to analyze slow drift motions.PhD i marin teknikkPhD in Marine Technolog

Nanomechanical testing of iron and steel

Delvis opptrykk av artikler PhD i produktutvikling og materialer - Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Trondheim, 201

Signalling Future Firm Value by Issuing Debt - An event study of bond announcements in the US stock market

In the presence of asymmetric information, firms may use leverage to provide positive information about firm value to the market. An increase in leverage by issuing debt can be interpreted as a credible signal as it may indicate that a firm's future earnings are sufficient to manage its debt obligations. In this paper, the event study methodology is applied to analyse the announcement effect of bond issuances for public US companies from 1994 to 2024. We find evidence that straight debt has a positive and statistically significant effect, with an abnormal return of 0,22% over a three-day period [-1,1]. In comparison, the announcement of convertible debt had a significant negative effect of -3,94% in the same period. Firm characteristics are also analysed, to capture factors that influence these results. Issue size, growth opportunities, and credit risk are found to impact abnormal returns of straight debt. The paper´s findings indicate that there are large differences in the signalling effect between bond types and that the market reaction depends on different firm characteristics