Research on the link between childhood emotional maltreatment and adult romantic relationship functioning

Emosjonell mishandling i barndommen har vist seg å være den mest hyppige form av barnemishandling. Dette fordi det forekommer alene og sammen med andre former for mishandling. Konsekvensene av dette har vist seg å være lik andre former for mishandling. Romantiske forhold i voksenlivet har spesielt vist seg å være utsatt for konsekvensene av et dårlig foreldre-barn forhold, enda er forskningen rundt dette noe begrenset. Denne master oppgaven tar for seg empirisk forskning utgitt mellom 2012 og 2021 som dekker linken mellom emosjonell mishandling i barndommen og romantiske forhold i voksen livet. 10 artikler representerer dataene presentert i oppgaven etter å ha møtt inklusjon og eksklusjonskriterier. Målet med denne oppgaven var å samle den tilgjengelige kunnskapen om hvordan emosjonell mishandling påvirker senere romantiske forhold, samt å finne eventuelle hull i litteraturen. Denne oppgaven viser at individer med en barndom preget av emosjonell mishandling har større risiko for å ha dysfunksjonelle romantiske forhold senere i livet. Flere mediatorer ble identifisert. Indre personlige konflikter som maladaptive skjemaer, emosjonsregulering, problematisk kommunikasjon av følelser og usikker tilknytning har vist seg å øke sjansene for konflikter og kommunikasjonsproblemer i romantiske forhold. Konflikter og svak kommunikasjon, sammen med mangel på gode ønsker for partneren kan føre til dysfunksjonelle forhold med lav kvalitet og tilfredshet. Denne oppgaven presenterer hovedsakelig forskjellige mediatorer mellom emosjonell mishandling og dysfunksjonelle romantiske forhold, samt at den presenterer bakgrunns forskning om begge temaer. Begrensninger på dataen og implikasjoner for videre forskning er diskutert.Masteroppgave i barnevernMABARN351MAPS-BAR

"Om ikke akkurat grasrot, så nesten litt". Miljøverndepartementets bruk av "sivilsamfunnsinitiativer" som virkemidler for økt folkelig miljøengasjement

This thesis studies how the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment tries to increase citizeninvolvement in environmental issues by using “grassroot” consumer organizations as a tool. Twosuch organizations are examined, namely Grønn Hverdag (Green Living) and 07-06-05 Tid forforandring (07-06-05 Time for Change). Both give the impression of being autonomousconsumer organisations but are essentially working to implement, rather than influence,environmental policy. Based on interviews with representatives of the organizations and of theMinistry, I attempt to examine the following: Are these top-down “grassroot” initiativescompatible with democratic principles, and are they able to strengthen citizens’ involvement withenvironmental issues?The study deals with this question by looking at the relation between the state and environmentalorganizations in Norway in a historical perspective. I argue that the two organizations are parts ofwhat might be regarded as a negative trend for democracy and political participation. First,increasing governmental control of voluntary organizations might transform many organizationsinto “arms of the state”. Second, public administration is participating in political debates in newways, partly at the expense of voluntary organizations and political parties. Further, thoughpolitical consumerism may be regarded as a legitimate tool for citizens to express politicalconcerns, I argue that these state-dominated organizations place too much responsibility forenvironmental problems on the individual consumer and too little on the political level. Theorganizations might therefore fail to address important societal questions, and this may also limittheir ability to gain popular support. This leads to the question of whether the focus on consensusand cooperation is always the best way for the political and administrative level to addressenvironmental concerns

The Adaptive Evolution Database (TAED): a phylogeny based tool for comparative genomics

From 138 662 embryophyte (higher plant) and 348 142 chordate genes, 4216 embryophyte and 15 452 chordate gene families were generated. For each of these gene families, multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetic trees, ratios of non-synonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitution rates (K(a)/K(s)), mappings from gene trees to the NCBI taxonomy and structural links to solved three-dimensional protein structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) with Grantham-weighted mutational factors were all calculated. Of the ‘gene family trees’, 173 embryophyte and 505 chordate branches show K(a)/K(s) ≫ 1 and are candidates for functional adaptation. The calculated information is available both as a gene family database and as a phylogenetically indexed resource, called ‘The Adaptive Evolution Database’ (TAED), available at http://www.bioinfo.no/tools/TAED

High accuracy mass spectrometry analysis as a tool to verify and improve gene annotation using Mycobacterium tuberculosis as an example

Background: While the genomic annotations of diverse lineages of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex are available, divergences between gene prediction methods are still a challenge for unbiased protein dataset generation. M. tuberculosis gene annotation is an example, where the most used datasets from two independent institutions (Sanger Institute and Institute of Genomic Research-TIGR) differ up to 12% in the number of annotated open reading frames, and 46% of the genes contained in both annotations have different start codons. Such differences emphasize the importance of the identification of the sequence of protein products to validate each gene annotation including its sequence coding area. Results: With this objective, we submitted a culture filtrate sample from M. tuberculosis to a highaccuracy LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer analysis and applied refined N-terminal prediction to perform comparison of two gene annotations. From a total of 449 proteins identified from the MS data, we validated 35 tryptic peptides that were specific to one of the two datasets, representing 24 different proteins. From those, 5 proteins were only annotated in the Sanger database. In the remaining proteins, the observed differences were due to differences in annotation of transcriptional start sites. Conclusion: Our results indicate that, even in a less complex sample likely to represent only 10% of the bacterial proteome, we were still able to detect major differences between different gene annotation approaches. This gives hope that high-throughput proteomics techniques can be used to improve and validate gene annotations, and in particular for verification of high-throughput, automatic gene annotations.publishedVersio

Assessment of vehicle emissions projections in Madrid (Spain) from 2004 to 2012 considering several control strategies

Road transport is a major source of air pollutant emissions in European cities. Moreover, vehicle exhaust emissions have been the cause of much concern about the effects of urban air pollution on human health. Local authorities need to develop strategies to control vehicular emissions through technological and socioeconomical measures. For this reason, an efficiency assessment of possible future measures to reduce air pollution is required for future traffic planning, regulatory and fiscal initiatives. This paper presents the assessment of several mobility and technology scenarios that can be used for emission reductions in Madrid (Spain) in the period 2004–2012. Pollutants considered are those related to typical air quality problems in urban areas in Europe (SO2, NOx, NMVOC, heavy metals, CO and particulate matter) and CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Results show an expected increase in mobility but a decreasing trend in future traffic-related emissions, except for CO2. This reduction is due to technological improvements linked to European Legislation for road vehicles (Euro Standards). CO2 emissions are expected to increase because the technological improvements will not be able to counteract the effect of the large mobility increase. With regard to control strategies, the most effective measure for emission reductions is fleet renewal. According to the hypotheses made in the paper, this would reduce, on average, the pollutant emission by 16.04%. With regard to CO2 emissions, the use of biofuels and the decrease in mobility are the most effective measures

Las preferencias discontinuas en los experimentos de elección: impacto en el cálculo de la prima de los programas agroambientales

[EN] In the choice experiment framework it is assumed that respondents consider all the attributes when making their choices. However, there is evidence that respondents may not consider all the attributes. This study investigates the impact derived from the discontinuity of preferences in the agri-environmental premium estimations related to the cultivation of rain fed forage crops. There is an improvement in the model goodness of fit when considering the discontinuity of preferences, however it only influences significantly in one of the four non-monetary attributes that defined the agri-environmental scheme for the sub sample of farmers non-participants and in two attributes for the sub-sample of participants.[ES] En los experimentos de elección se presupone que los individuos consideran todos los atributos que describen un bien a la hora de escoger su opción preferida. Sin embargo, existe evidencia de que los individuos pueden obviar algún atributo. Este trabajo investiga el impacto derivado de las preferencias discontinuas en las estimaciones de la compensación necesaria para acogerse a la medida agroambiental relativa a la siembra de leguminosas en secano. La consideración de las preferencias discontinuas mejora la bondad de ajuste de los modelos, sin embargo únicamente afecta de manera significativa a la compensación demandada por uno de los cuatro atributos no monetarios que definen el programa agroambiental para la submuestra de los agricultores no participantes y en dos atributos para la submuestra de participantes en el programa agroambiental.Este investigación ha sido financiada por el INIA-MICINN y los fondos FEDER en el marco del proyecto DISOPTIPOL (RTA2005-0020). JBH realizó este trabajo mientras estaba contratado por el programa de incorporación de doctores al sistema INIA-CCAA, parcialmente financiado por el Fondo Social Europeo. Los autores quieren agradecer, sin perjuicio de la responsabilidad por los errores que puedan persistir, los comentarios realizados por los revisores anónimos y el comité editorial que han permitido mejorar la presentación del artículo publicado.Espinosa-Godet, M.; Barreiro-Hurlé, J. (2010). Discontinuity of preferences in choice experiments: the impact on the evaluationof the agri-environmental premium. Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales - Agricultural and Resource Economics. 10(1):155-176. https://doi.org/10.7201/earn.2010.01.09SWORD15517610

The mortality impact of bicycle paths and lanes related to physical activity, air pollution exposure and road safety

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Objective: Guidelines for bicycle infrastructure design tend to consider safety issues but not wider health issues. This paper explores the overall health impact of bicycle infrastructure provision, including not just road safety impacts, but also the population health impacts stemming from physical activity as well as cyclists' exposure to air pollution. Data and methods: We have summarised key publications on how bicycle paths and lanes affect cyclists' exposure to physical activity, air pollution, and road safety. The health impact is modelled using all-cause mortality as a metric for a scenario with new bicycle lanes and paths in a hypothetical city. Results: The outcomes of the study suggest that, based on currently available research, a reduction of all-cause mortality is to be expected from building bicycle lanes and paths along busy roads with mixed traffic. Increased physical activity through more time spent cycling is the major contribution, but is also the most uncertain aspect. Effects related to air pollution and cycling safety are likely to reduce mortality but are small. The overall benefits are large enough to achieve a high benefit-cost ratio for bicycle infrastructure. Conclusions: The introduction of bicycle paths and lanes is likely to be associated with health benefits, primarily due to increased physical activity. More research is needed to estimate the absolute size of the health benefits. In particular, evaluations of the effects of bicycle infrastructure on time spent cycling are limited or of insufficient quality to infer causality. We recommend before-after studies measuring the effects of different interventions and in areas representing a wide range of base levels of cycling participation

Choice of generic antihypertensive drugs for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease - A cost-effectiveness analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hypertension is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A range of antihypertensive drugs exists, and their prices vary widely mainly due to patent rights. The objective of this study was to explore the cost-effectiveness of different generic antihypertensive drugs as first, second and third choice for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used the Norwegian Cardiovascular Disease model (NorCaD) to simulate the cardiovascular life of patients from hypertension without symptoms until they were all dead or 100 years old. The risk of CVD events and costs were based on recent Norwegian sources.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In single-drug treatment, all antihypertensives are cost-effective compared to no drug treatment. In the base-case analysis, the first, second and third choice of antihypertensive were calcium channel blocker, thiazide and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor. However the sensitivity and scenario analyses indicated considerable uncertainty in that angiotensin receptor blockers as well as, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, beta blockers and thiazides could be the most cost-effective antihypertensive drugs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Generic antihypertensives are cost-effective in a wide range of risk groups. There is considerable uncertainty, however, regarding which drug is the most cost-effective.</p

Revisiting consistency with random utility maximisation: theory and implications for practical work

While the paradigm of utility maximisation has formed the basis of the majority of applications in discrete choice modelling for over 40 years, its core assumptions have been questioned by work in both behavioural economics and mathematical psychology as well as more recently by developments in the RUM-oriented choice modelling community. This paper reviews the basic properties with a view to explaining the historical pre-eminence of utility maximisation and addresses the question of what departures from the paradigm may be necessary or wise in order to accommodate richer behavioural patterns. We find that many, though not all, of the behavioural traits discussed in the literature can be approximated sufficiently closely by a random utility framework, allowing analysts to retain the many advantages that such an approach possesses