908 research outputs found
A central limit theorem via differential equations
In a paper from 1995, Wormald gave general criteria for certain parameters in
a family of discrete random processes to converge to the solution of a system
of differential equations. Based on this method, we show that if some further
conditions are satisfied, the parameters converge to a multivariate normal
distribution.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-AAP557 the Annals of
Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Gender Quotas on Corporate Boards: Similarities and Differences in Quota Scenarios
In this article, the use of gender quotas to strengthen gender equality on corporate boards is explored. Examining
national practices in ten European countries we provide an overview, categorizing the design of various corporate
board quotas (CBQs) and the contexts in which they are embedded. In particular, similarities and differences along
two dimensions are investigated: the design of the CBQs in terms of their hardness and progressiveness, and the
institutional context in which they are embedded. From patterns of design and context configurations, different quota scenarios are discerned. We advance the discussion of female representation and the strategies of corporate boards
beyond the rather misleading dichotomy of voluntary targets versus mandatory quotas, proposing a framework for
understanding various CBQ designs. Moreover, we suggest that the configuration of design and institutional context,
resulting in different quota scenarios affects female representation on corporate boards
Exploring the Norwegian paradox of vertical sex segregation: strategies and experiences in politics, academia and company boards
PhDOn all international measures of gender equality Scandinavian countries emerge as more
equal with Norway as the most equal of countries. Yet, despite an apparent equality,
vertical segregation is resilient in Scandinavian countries. The use of affirmative action
(AA) has been offered as a potential way to challenge inequality and occupational sex
segregation, yet, as illustrated by Acker (2006b) these strategies often fail. Few studies
have investigated womenâs experience of gender segregation in Norway, moreover, we
know little of the experience of women in occupations influenced by AA strategies.
This thesis aims to contribute to understanding the experience of women in the âmost
equal of countriesâ and it draws on Ackerâs (2006b) âinequality regimesâ as an
analytical framework. This thesis takes a multilevel approach to explore gendering
practices within Norway in three occupational groups; politics, academia and corporate
boards of directors to understand the processes underpinning vertical segregation. The
rationale for focusing on these three occupational groups lies in the nature of the groups
and their use of AA, as well as the different representation of women. The thesis builds
on a variety of methods of both a qualitative and quantitative nature and will
demonstrate the nature of the interrelationship of structural factors and individual
agency in understanding the Norwegian paradox. In particular, 66 in-depth interviews
with women employed in senior positions within the three occupational groups form the
key method. In addition, the thesis draws on secondary quantitative data to situate
women in the three occupational groups and in Norway.
Findings reveal that the idea of Norwayâs equality is still more of an aspiration than
reality as gender inequality regimes are present in politics, academia, and boards of
directors, but they take different forms. The thesis finds that Norwegian organisations
are not gender neutral; instead they provide a set of institutional conditions that
encourage forms of vertical segregation. In particular, the thesis identifies the
importance of political strategies, both related to AA as well as welfare for improving
equality. Nevertheless, the thesis also acknowledges the complexity of these strategies
and the importance of designing country and occupational group specific strategies in
order to progress. The thesis uncovers the resilience of gendered social processes in
womenâs exclusion but also highlights the fewer and more constrained conditions under
which âwomanâ may also have an advantage. Hence, this thesis contributes to the
literature on occupational sex segregation and AA
'Men han har forskjellig farge pÄ Þynene.' Om barns mÞte med litteratur i skolen sett i lys av teori om mentalisering og Theory of Mind.
Utgangspunktet for artikkelen er en resepsjonsstudie
av en gruppe seksÄringer pÄ barnetrinnet som leser
bildeboken Bukkene Bruse pÄ Badeland av RÞrvik og
Moursund (2009). I samtale om boken begynner barna
Ă„ undre seg over og kommentere trollets mentale tilstander
og fĂžlelser ut fra trekk ved tegningene. Hvorfor
har trollet forskjellig farge pÄ Þynene? Er han sint eller
kanskje redd? Hva betyr det egentlig at munnen er
Ă„pen? Er trollet glad da?
SiktemÄlet med artikkelen er Ä undersÞke om
utsagnene til barna i studien kan forstÄes som forsÞk
pĂ„ Ă„ mentalisere, Ă„ sĂžke Ă„ forstĂ„ andre menneskers â og
dermed egne â tanker og fĂžlelser. I artikkelen drĂžftes
det om begrepet mentalisering kan bidra til Ă„ gi Ăžkt
innsikt i barns litteraturlesing. Deretter drĂžftes det om
dette perspektivet fÄr didaktiske konsekvenser. Hvilke
fÞlger fÄr forstÄelsen som ligger i begrepet mentalisering
nÄr det gjelder synet pÄ og bruken av skjÞnnlitteratur
i skolens morsmÄlsfag
Cellular clearance and protein binding partners of pathogenic CEL-HYB
The CEL gene encodes the digestive enzyme carboxyl ester lipase, which is mainly expressed in the acinar cells of the pancreas. In 2015, our research group discovered a CEL hybrid gene, named CEL-HYB, resulting from non-allelic homologous recombination between CEL and its pseudogene CELP. Interestingly, the CEL-HYB allele was found to be a genetic risk factor for chronic pancreatitis. In cellular studies performed by us and others, CEL-HYB showed reduced secretion, intracellular aggregation as well as induced cell stress and autophagy. Based on these findings, CEL-HYB allele is likely to belong to the misfolding-dependent pathway of genetic risk in chronic pancreatitis. With this masterâs project, we wanted to study the cellular fate and to reveal potential protein binding partners of CEL-HYB, to learn more about its disease mechanism. To do so, we used both cellular and mouse model systems. Our results showed that CEL-HYB is less secreted and tends to aggregate in the insoluble pellet fraction of transfected HEK293 cells. Moreover, Cel-HYB proteins accumulated on the inside of the apical cell membrane, forming a tubular-like expression pattern in the pancreatic acinar cells of mice. We also found the autophagy marker LC3B to be upregulated in the pancreas of Cel-HYB expressing mice, but not in control mice. By co-immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry we discovered possible protein binding partners of CEL-HYB, including a cluster of nine proteins related to protein folding. In summary, we have shown that CEL-HYB aggregation takes place both in the cell and at the organ level, strengthening the hypothesis that protein misfolding is involved in the disease mechanism. Misfolded CEL-HYB is then most likely cleared in the cell by induced autophagy. Interestingly, in our search for CEL-HYB binding partners we found proteins that facilitate the folding of other proteins. These results will be followed up and further analyzed in future studies.Masteroppgave i biomedisinBMED395MAMD-MEDB
European Rule of Law in National Judiciaries - On the obligation of Member States to establish an independent judiciary
The topic of this paper is the obligation of EU Member States to establish and uphold an independent national judiciary under Article 19(1) TEU, as developed in recent case law by the ECJ in an attempt to combat rule of law-backsliding. The paper seeks to investigate the background, analyse the requirements and threshold and discuss some of the implications of this case law
Measurements of carotid intima media thickness in non-invasive high-frequency ultrasound images: the effect of dynamic range setting
Background
Carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) measured with ultrasound (US) is widely used as biomarker for arteriosclerosis and as surrogate endpoint in interventional studies to assess efficacy of drug therapies. Strict US protocols are necessary to ensure reproducibility. The range of US signal intensities used for image formation, the dynamic range (DR), is rarely reported in studies and little is known about its effect on CIMT measurements in humans. The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact of DR on measurements of CIMT.
Methods
US was used to examine 313 carotid arteries in participants from two different clinical studies. For each artery, images with DR of 40, 55, 70 and 85Â dB were captured from the same frozen US frame. Mean CIMT (CIMTmean), maximum CIMT (CIMTmax) and standard deviation of CIMT (CIMTsd) were obtained for all images. CIMT for different DRs were compared using student t-test.
Results
CIMTmean for 40, 55, 70 and 85Â dB were 0.529, 0.564, 0.590 and 0.605Â mm respectively. For CIMTmax the corresponding values were 0.626, 0.667, 0.698, and 0.716Â mm. CIMTmean and CIMTmax increased significantly for increasing DR steps (pâ<â0.01). The relative change in CIMTmean and CIMTmax were largest between 40 and 55Â dB (6.7% and 7.0%) and smallest between 70 and 85Â dB (2.6% and 2.7%) indicating a declining dependency for increasing DR.
Conclusions
DR significantly changes CIMT measurements and the changes are most prominent for lower DRs. The effect of changing DR is larger in human arteries than in phantoms. Reporting the DR will therefore increase the validity of CIMT data
The Critical Phase for Random Graphs with a Given Degree Sequence
We consider random graphs with a fixed degree sequence. Molloy and Reed [11, 12] studied how the size of the giant component changes according to degree conditions. They showed that there is a phase transition and investigated the order of components before and after the critical phase. In this paper we study more closely the order of components at the critical phase, using singularity analysis of a generating function for a branching process which models the random graph with a given degree sequence
FlersprÄklige elevers opplevelse av teoretisk undervisning i ungdomsskolen
HovedmÄlet med denne kvalitative studien er Ä gi innsikt i flersprÄklige elevers opplevelse av undervisning i en norsk ungdomsskole. Hensikten er Ä analysere elevenes egen opplevelse og forklare sprÄkets, spesielt, morsmÄlets betydning for enkelte individer. Problemstillingen i denne oppgaven lyder: «I hvilken grad opplever flersprÄklige elever med kort botid i Norge sprÄklig ivaretakelse i undervisningen?»
Problemstillingen utdypes med fÞlgende underspÞrsmÄl: I hvilken grad blir teoretisk undervisning tilpasset til de flersprÄklige elevenes behov? Hvordan fÞler elevene at de er ivaretatt i teoretisk undervisning?
Metoden i denne studien er individuelle intervjuer, som ble gjennomfÞrt med tre minoritetssprÄklige elever pÄ 9. og 10. trinn. Datamaterialet ble samlet gjennom semi-strukturerte intervjuer. Analysen ble gjennomfÞrt med hjelp av den hermeneutiske sirkelen og en analysemetode hvor materialet blir sammenlignet med seg selv. Forskerens forforstÄelser spiller ogsÄ en rolle i fortolkningen.
Over 17% av grunnskoleelever i Norge har minoritetssprĂ„klig bakgrunn, men kun et fĂ„tall lĂŠrere har kompetanse i andresprĂ„kdidaktikk. Mange flersprĂ„klige elever mĂžter store utfordringer i skolen. Til tross for at forskning viser at morsmĂ„let har en stor pĂ„virkning pĂ„ innlĂŠring av andresprĂ„ket, synker antallet elever som fĂ„r morsmĂ„lsundervisning. Elevenes innlĂŠring av andresprĂ„ket blir betraktet i lys av aktuell forskning hvor teoriene til sprĂ„kforskeren Jim Cummins stĂ„r sentralt. Cummins teorier blir belyst fra en pedagogisk side med hjelp av teorier til de norske forskerne Engen, Kulbrandstad og Ăzerk.
Hovedfunn i denne kasusstudien viser at elevene fÞler seg godt ivaretatt i teoretisk undervisning, mens tilrettelegging skjer mest gjennom at elevene fÄr sÊrskilt norskopplÊring i en mindre gruppe. Informantene opplever en del utfordringer i teoretisk undervisning, samtidig som de opplever mestring i de teoretiske fagene, stÞttet av lÊringspartnere og lÊrer. Denne mestringen kan forklares med Vygotskij sin sone for nÊrmeste utvikling. Elevene er trygge til Ä bruke norsk som kommunikasjonsmiddel og de er pÄ vei Ä tilegne seg norsk som undervisningssprÄk. Deres morsmÄl har fÄtt en mindre viktig rolle, mens deres store mÄl er Ä lÊre seg bedre norsk
Evaluation of forecasts by a global data-driven weather model with and without probabilistic post-processing at Norwegian stations
During the last two years, tremendous progress in global data-driven weather
models trained on numerical weather prediction (NWP) re-analysis data has been
made. The most recent models trained on the ERA5 at 0.25{\deg} resolution
demonstrate forecast quality on par with ECMWF's high-resolution model with
respect to a wide selection of verification metrics. In this study, one of
these models, the Pangu-Weather, is compared to several NWP models with and
without probabilistic post-processing for 2-meter temperature and 10-meter wind
speed forecasting at 183 Norwegian SYNOP stations up to +60 hours ahead. The
NWP models included are the ECMWF HRES, ECMWF ENS and the Harmonie-AROME
ensemble model MEPS with 2.5 km spatial resolution. Results show that the
performances of the global models are on the same level with Pangu-Weather
being slightly better than the ECMWF models for temperature and slightly worse
for wind speed. The MEPS model clearly provided the best forecasts for both
parameters. The post-processing improved the forecast quality considerably for
all models, but to a larger extent for the coarse-resolution global models due
to stronger systematic deficiencies in these. Apart from this, the main
characteristics in the scores were more or less the same with and without
post-processing. Our results thus confirm the conclusions from other studies
that global data-driven models are promising for operational weather
forecasting.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
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