Main Territories in South Norway in the Mesolithic

The focus of this paper is on regionality, the use of main territories and how they are interlinked in the Mesolithic in south Norway during the culmination of the settlement of the mountain area, 8500–7600 cal BP. The main territories and their boundaries are identified by the distribution of specific lithic raw materials and one artefact type, distribution of ungulates and drainage systems. In the Mesolithic, south Norway corresponds to a language family with four dialectic tribes, each one corresponding to a main territory. Based on ethnographic analogies, the inegalitarian higher latitude boreal hunter-gatherer societies had delayed return. The subsistence strategy may have included the defence of resources which were plentiful, concentrated and predictable, with ownership of resource-rich locations such as salmon runs and quarries, while unreliable resources such as unpredictable ungulates may not have been defended. Storing may have resulted in a sedentary period during the yearly round close to resource-rich areas along rivers and coasts. The presence of a cemetery by the seashore at Hummervikholmen, indicates lineal descent groups, linking territories to funerary behaviour. Territorial lineages may have existed, with formal areas for disposal of the dead at least along resource-rich riversides and seashores. However, these may have been destroyed by erosion and other destruction processes. Lithic markers indicate that foragers from the four main territories maintained a network of links following the drainage systems and crossing the mountain area in the Central Main Territory, which was temporarily settled by people from the other main territories. Here, people from different directions could meet during the warm season hunting reindeer. In the river sources around the water divide areas, people may have had meeting places, exchanging information over large areas of south Norway. The activities at the meeting places were connected to a reindeer culture with long diasporic traditions reaching back to their origin at the lateglacial Continent. Reindeer are proposed to have had a central role in the grouping of the main territories.publishedVersio

A spectroscopic look at the gravitationally lensed type Ia SN 2016geu at z=0.409

The spectacular success of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in SN-cosmology is based on the assumption that their photometric and spectroscopic properties are invariant with redshift. However, this fundamental assumption needs to be tested with observations of high-z SNe Ia. To date, the majority of SNe Ia observed at moderate to large redshifts (0.4 < z < 1.0) are faint, and the resultant analyses are based on observations with modest signal-to-noise ratios that impart a degree of ambiguity in their determined properties. In rare cases however, the Universe offers a helping hand: to date a few SNe Ia have been observed that have had their luminosities magnified by intervening galaxies and galaxy clusters acting as gravitational lenses. In this paper we present long-slit spectroscopy of the lensed SNe Ia 2016geu, which occurred at a redshift of z=0.409, and was magnified by a factor of ~55 by a galaxy located at z=0.216. We compared our spectra, which were obtained a couple weeks to a couple months past peak light, with the spectroscopic properties of well-observed, nearby SNe Ia, finding that SN 2016geu's properties are commensurate with those of SNe Ia in the local universe. Based primarily on the velocity and strength of the Si II 6355 absorption feature, we find that SN 2016geu can be classified as a high-velocity, high-velocity gradient and "core-normal" SN Ia. The strength of various features (measured though their pseudo-equivalent widths) argue against SN 2016geu being a faint, broad-lined, cool or shallow-silicon SN Ia. We conclude that the spectroscopic properties of SN 2016geu imply that it is a normal SN Ia, and when taking previous results by other authors into consideration, there is very little, if any, evolution in the observational properties of SNe Ia up to z~0.4. [Abridged]Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome

The μ Switch Region Tandem Repeats Are Important, but Not Required, for Antibody Class Switch Recombination

Class switch DNA recombinations change the constant (C) region of the antibody heavy (H) chain expressed by a B cell and thereby change the antibody effector function. Unusual tandemly repeated sequence elements located upstream of H chain gene exons have long been thought to be important in the targeting and/or mechanism of the switch recombination process. We have deleted the entire switch tandem repeat element (Sμ) from the murine μ H chain gene. We find that the Sμ tandem repeats are not required for class switching in the mouse immunoglobulin H-chain locus, although the efficiency of switching is clearly reduced. Our data demonstrate that sequences outside of the Sμ tandem repeats must be capable of directing the class switch mechanism. The maintenance of the highly repeated Sμ element during evolution appears to reflect selection for a highly efficient switching process rather than selection for a required sequence element

Shifts in targeting of class switch recombination sites in mice that lack mu switch region tandem repeats or Msh2

The mechanisms that target class switch recombination (CSR) to antibody gene switch (S) regions are unknown. Analyses of switch site locations in wild-type mice and in mice that lack the Smu tandem repeats show shifts indicating that a 4-5-kb DNA domain (bounded upstream by the Imu promoter) is accessible for switching independent of Smu sequences. This CSR-accessible domain is reminiscent of the promoter-defined domains that target somatic hypermutation. Within the 4-5-kb CSR domain, the targeting of S site locations also depends on the Msh2 mismatch repair protein because Msh2-deficient mice show an increased focus of sites to the Smu tandem repeat region. We propose that Msh2 affects S site location because sequences with few activation-induced cytidine deaminase targets generate mostly switch DNA cleavages that require Msh2-directed processing to allow CSR joining

To succeed with the Children welfare reform - characteristics of key organisational frameworks and good practice

Erfaringsbasert master, 90 studiepoengBarneverntjenesten har en viktig rolle når det gjelder å hjelpe barn og deres familier. Selv om en i Norge over tid har ønsket å få til likeverdig og kvalitativt godt tilbud til barn og unge uavhengig av bosted, viser det seg svært utfordrende i praksis. Kommunene har ulike forutsetninger for å drive et godt barnevern, både på grunn av størrelse, tilgang til kompetanse, ledelse og ressurser. Det finnes mye kunnskap om hvor viktig det er med tidlig innsats og hvor alvorlig konsekvensene av mangelfull hjelp kan bli for enkeltindividet og samfunnet. Denne studien jakter på årsaker til hvorfor noen kommuner lykkes med å redusere plasseringer av barn utenfor hjemmet. Forfatterne har brukt tid på å finne en inngangsvinkel til dette temaet, og hadde en lang prosess for å finne relevante faktorer for å eliminere utvalget til noen få kommuner. Prosessen endte ut med et utvalg på fire kommuner, og for å få mer innsikt i temaet ble det valgt kvalitativ metode. Forfatterne har intervjuet til sammen 11 informanter, i sju intervjuer. Da barnevernet samarbeider med mange instanser og hovedfokus er tidlig innsats, er studien avgrenset til barnevernets samarbeid med helsestasjon og barnehage. Studien ser på barneverntjenestens organisasjon og samhandling med helsestasjonen og barnehage. Forfatterne har utarbeidet en egen modell som hjelp i studien og få besvart problemstillingen og forskningsspørsmålene. Teorier om strategi, ledelse, organisasjon og samarbeid er benyttet. Kommuners valg og prioritering har betydning for resultater når det gjelder tidlig innsats. Noen av de viktigste funnene i studien omhandler kommunens strategi når det gjelder å sette mål for tjenestene til innbyggerne og hvorledes en organiserer arbeidet. Videre hvor vesentlig det er med lederinitiativ og innsats for å vise vei og retning mot et felles mål.Engelsk sammendrag (abstract) Child welfare has an important role to play when it comes to helping children and their families. Despite Norway having worked towards managing a quality and equal offer to children and young people, independent of where they live, it proves to be more difficult in practice. Local Councils have different prerequisites for running a good Children Service, due to size, access to competence, management and resources. There is a great deal of evidence that shows the importance of early intervention, and how serious the consequences of inadequate help can be for both the individual and society. This study investigates the reason why some Local Councils succeed in reducing placements of children outside the home. The authors spent time trying to find an approach to this topic, and went through a long process to find relevant factors for eliminating the selection to just a few Local Councils. The result of the process was a choice of four Local Councils and, in order to get a better insight into the topic, a qualitative method was used. The authors have interviewed 11 informants via seven interviews. As the Children Service work with different partners, and the main focus is early intervention, the study is limited to the cooperation with family health care center and kindergartens. The authors have developed their own model to help in the study, and to get the answers to the problems and research questions. Theories about strategy, leadership, organization and cooperation are used. When it comes to early intervention, Local Councils' choice and priorities influence the results. Some of the most important findings in the study regard the Local Council's strategy when it comes to establishing goals for the services offered to those in its catchment area and how the work is organized. In addition, how important leader initiative is and the effort to set a path and effort towards a common goal were important findings in this study

Tverrfaglig innfallsvinkel til verneprognoser og vernestrategi for maritime kulturminner knyttet til anløpsplasser og leder fra jernalder og middelalder

When the maritime cultural heritage is being protected, little emphasis is placed on problems concerning erosion and destruction of remains at landing places and navigable channels on the Norwegian coast. In recent years, an extensive survey has been carried out along the coast of the county of Rogaland and many new cultural monuments and sites related to landing places and navigable channels have been found, many of them dating from the Iron Age and the Middle Ages. A new method has been developed to evaluate the quality of different landing places and navigable channels in combination with climate variables such as wind, topography and fetch - the fetch method. This method has been tested at several places in northern Rogaland, in the outer part of Boknafjord and in Karmsund (a strait), and the results are promising. In a convincing way, the method explains why cultural monuments and sites along the coast are rare in some areas, but numerous in others. The method can also be used to predict where new finds of maritime cultural monuments and sites can be expected. This is especially important because such features are difficult to recognise and can be mistaken for natural formations. The results indicate that there is cause for anxiety about the protection of landing places and navigable channels because they are vulnerable to destruction by anthropogenic climate changes. The sea is rising due to increased temperature on a global scale. The choice of protection strategies for maritime cultural monuments and sites and associated sediments on land and in the sea depends upon how much the sea will rise in the future, which will vary from area to area, least in southwest Norway and most further north and south. The choice of protection strategies will also vary depending on whether the cultural monuments and sites and the associated sediments are on land or in the sea. Notwithstanding, the coming years will see a change in the coastal environment. The rising sea level will inundate many sites and expose them to erosion and destruction, especially in the period when they are in the beach zone. Some will be in deeper water, which in some cases will give better protection, whereas others will suffer erosion and destruction, partly due to changing currents. If the predicted rise in sea level in the coming 50 years is realised, the problems concerning the protection of cultural monuments and sites along the coast, both on land and in the sea, will be critical and the Directorate for Cultural Heritage (RA) ought to base their protection on prognoses with a longer time perspective than today

Shifts in targeting of class switch recombination sites in mice that lack μ switch region tandem repeats or Msh2

The mechanisms that target class switch recombination (CSR) to antibody gene switch (S) regions are unknown. Analyses of switch site locations in wild-type mice and in mice that lack the Sμ tandem repeats show shifts indicating that a 4–5-kb DNA domain (bounded upstream by the Iμ promoter) is accessible for switching independent of Sμ sequences. This CSR-accessible domain is reminiscent of the promoter-defined domains that target somatic hypermutation. Within the 4–5-kb CSR domain, the targeting of S site locations also depends on the Msh2 mismatch repair protein because Msh2-deficient mice show an increased focus of sites to the Sμ tandem repeat region. We propose that Msh2 affects S site location because sequences with few activation-induced cytidine deaminase targets generate mostly switch DNA cleavages that require Msh2-directed processing to allow CSR joining

The Sμ Tandem Repeat Region Is Critical for Ig Isotype Switching in the Absence of Msh2

AbstractDeficiencies of the Msh2 protein or the Sμ tandem repeat (SμTR) sequences each reduce isotype switching in mice by about 2- to 3-fold. We find that switching in mice deficient for both Msh2 and SμTR is nearly ablated. We propose that the SμTR provides closely spaced cleavage sites that can undergo switch recombination independent of Msh2, whereas cleavages in sequences flanking the SμTR require Msh2 processing to allow recombinational joining. We also find that changes in Sμ sequences alter the focus of switch junctions within Sγ sequences, indicating that sequences of switch regions act together in the choice of switch recombination junctions. These findings help to explain the conservation of tandemly repeated switch regions associated with heavy chain constant genes in species capable of switching

Spectrophotometric analysis of GRB afterglow extinction curves with X-shooter

In this work we use gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow spectra observed with the VLT/X-shooter spectrograph to measure rest-frame extinction in GRB lines-of-sight by modeling the broadband near-infrared (NIR) to X-ray afterglow spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Our sample consists of nine Swift GRBs, eight of them belonging to the long-duration and one to the short-duration class. Dust is modeled using the average extinction curves of the Milky Way and the two Magellanic Clouds. We derive the rest-frame extinction of the entire sample, which fall in the range $0 \lesssim {\it A}_{\rm V} \lesssim 1.2$. Moreover, the SMC extinction curve is the preferred extinction curve template for the majority of our sample, a result which is in agreement with those commonly observed in GRB lines-of-sights. In one analysed case (GRB 120119A), the common extinction curve templates fail to reproduce the observed extinction. To illustrate the advantage of using the high-quality X-shooter afterglow SEDs over the photometric SEDs, we repeat the modeling using the broadband SEDs with the NIR-to-UV photometric measurements instead of the spectra. The main result is that the spectroscopic data, thanks to a combination of excellent resolution and coverage of the blue part of the SED, are more successful in constraining the extinction curves and therefore the dust properties in GRB hosts with respect to photometric measurements. In all cases but one the extinction curve of one template is preferred over the others. We show that the modeled values of the extinction and the spectral slope, obtained through spectroscopic and photometric SED analysis, can differ significantly for individual events. Finally we stress that, regardless of the resolution of the optical-to-NIR data, the SED modeling gives reliable results only when the fit is performed on a SED covering a broader spectral region.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic