Biotechnology business in Norway: Peripheral advantage, or just periphery?

Research on biotechnology related firms has long been associated with the agglomeration of “dedicated biotechnology firms” and partners such as large corporations, research institutes and venture capital firms. At the same time it is acknowledged that such agglomeration trends may be most closely associated with medical biotechnology. This paper shows that there are more than 130 firms which may be classified as biotechnology related firms in Norway. Furthermore they are spread out throughout the country, albeit with more than half being located in the Eastern part. While there is indeed a great preoccupation with medical biotechnology also in Norway, the survey shows that two other distinct traits are present: a concentration of firms being focused on diagnostics and drug delivery rather than on therapeutics, and a focus on marine biotechnology (more than one third of the firms) within nutrition related products rather than or in addition to medical products. In addition to contributing these descriptive findings the paper thus opens up the agglomeration discussion, and suggests that foci on such niches as those which are prevalent in Norway may function with geographical distribution patterns different from those prevalent within the current medical biotechnology focused literature.

Iraqi Prisoners in Norway: Educational Background, Participation, Preferences and Barriers to Education

The article aimed to develop knowledge of the educational background, participation and preferences of Iraqi prisoners in Norwegian prisons and obstacles to participating in education. The study is based on interviews with 17 prisoners in three prisons. An important finding is that war and political unrest appear to have been significant causes for respondents to leaving education at various stages. As a result only half of them have as much as one final exam and only three respondents have a certificate of education. Even if the respondents want an education while in prison, and although education is offered in all prisons there is a lack of information about educational opportunities in an understandable language and long waiting time for a place at school. An implication of the study is that the criminal administration system and the educational authorities must take into account the multicultural reality by facilitating education and training offers accordingly

Implementing and evaluating empirically based family and school programmes for children with conduct problems in Norway

This paper discusses the implementation and evaluation of two family and community based intervention programmes for children and young people implemented in Norway, namely Parent Management Training (PMTO) (Ogden and Amlund Hagen in press) and Multisystemic Therapy (Ogden and Halliday-Boykins 2004; Ogden and Amlund-Hagen 2006), and a school-wide intervention programme, PALS (Sørlie and Ogden 2007). In PALS universal interventions are combined with treatment by offering PMTO to the parents of the high risk children. The Norwegian experiences and results also illustrate how evidence-based programs developed in the US have been transported across geographical and language borders, implemented nationwide, evaluated for their effectiveness in regular practice and examined for sustainability. This paper describes this national strategy, and the main components and immediate outcomes of the PMTO- and PALS-programmes in Norway.peer-reviewe

Benefits of past inventory data as prior information for the current inventory

When auxiliary information in the form of airborne laser scanning (ALS) is used to assist in estimating the population parameters of interest, the benefits of prior information from previous inventories are not self-evident. In a simulation study, we compared three different approaches: 1) using only current data, 2) using non-updated old data and current data in a composite estimator and 3) using updated old data and current data with a Kalman filter. We also tested three different estimators, namely i) Horwitz-Thompson for a case of no auxiliary information, ii) model-assisted estimation and iii) model-based estimation. We compared these methods in terms of bias, precision and accuracy, as estimators utilizing prior information are not guaranteed to be unbiased.202

What is best and at what cost? Cross-national differences in the treatment of ageing-related diseases Norwegian perspective from a comparative OECD-project

Aggregated medical spending differs widely across countries and large variations exist in the frequency and the mix of medical services provided, as well as the type of technology applied. The outcomes (mostly measured as survival rates) do not, however vary to the same extent as the spending. Policy makers in many countries compare their spending to each other, with no clear consensus about how systems are effective in treating patients. In each of these debates the issue of what medical care is buying arises: When countries spend more or less on health care, how does that affect resource allocation in the medical sector and ultimately the health outcomes? The goal of the project1 was to examine how different medical care systems will affect the allocation of resources in the medical sector. As the existing available macro data at an international level does not allow for satisfactory answers to such questions, this project wanted to use a microeconomic approach. An international comparison of treatments of conditions in older populations that lead to high expenditures could help to identify treatments that might be more effective in improving outcomes at lower cost. Therefore the project focused on international comparisons of treatments for a spectrum of conditions in older populations with high aggregate medical spending, well identified episodes of care, high prevalence and high policy relevance. Norway participated in studies on myocardial infarction and breast cancer 2. The choice of focus on older patients was partly motivated by the fact that in the future the elderly will probably take an increasingly proportion of the total spending in the health care sector. See documentation from the main project: http://www.oecd.org/EN/document/0,,EN-document-194-5-no-27-32316-0,00.htmlMedical care; allocation of resources; acute myocardial infarction; breast cancer; international comparisons of treatments

The Relationship Between Prisoners’ Academic Self-efficacy and Participation in Education, Previous Convictions, Sentence Length, and Portion of Sentence Served

Prison education is an important aspect of adult education. The study investigated current participation in prison education, as well as previous convictions, sentence length, and the portion of sentence served as predictors of academic self-efficacy. Survey data derived from prisoners in all Norwegian prisons provided the empirical evidences for the analyses. A principal component analysis of a 40-item academic self-efficacy questionnaire revealed self-efficacy components in literacy, mathematics, ICT, and self-regulated learning. Educational participation had a positive influence on self-efficacy in both mathematics and self-regulated learning. Participants who reported no previous conviction scored higher than others did on self-efficacy in mathematics, self-regulated learning, and ICT. Furthermore, the results showed that perceived efficacy in ICT decreased with longer sentence length. Portion of sentence served was not significantly related to any of the four self-efficacy components. The findings are discussed with reference to a need for mastery experiences in prison and implications for policy and practic

Symptoms of ADHD are related to education and work experience among incarcerated adults

Several reports document increased prevalence of attention deficit and hyperactivity (ADHD) and similar symptoms in incarcerated members of the community, but little is known about how the symptoms are related to education and work experience. An ongoing study among Norwegian inmates reveals that 60 % report signs of ADHD. In the present study a sample of 600 inmates incarcerated in Norway filled out a questionnaire including the WURS-k (Wender Utah Rating Scale, short form) and questions to survey completed education level and work experience. A clear relationship was found between the WURS-k score and earlier job-experience, with increased probability of ADHD with work experience from low socio-economic status jobs. The scale was also found to share variance with the inmates’ reported education history, as higher education reduces the probability of ADHD among the incarcerated adults. Thus, the WURS-k could be a useful screening instrument in education assessment among inmates. The link between the present findings and development of anti-social behaviour is discussed